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eirichele · 4 years

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a VERY in depth look at fire emblem: three houses and its grooming problem

OR: how this game managed to make an accurate portrayal of grooming and exactly how it made it palatable

(warning: really long. though to be fair, the length is mostly screenshots. you can also read this in google docs)

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SO i’ve been wanting to write something Formal and In Depth for a while, because this game’s reception has been a nightmare for me and other csa victims and quarantine hit, so i finally had time. i just really wanted to get all my thoughts in one place before i move on from 3h. i’m basically done talking about this after this one because... idk what else i could say that hasn’t been said here, really. fe has history with this, and the in-game excuses ring hollow when we know the fe devs disregard csa victims at every turn while pandering to male gamers who love sexualised teenage girls.

long, long analysis under the cut:

Some previous context: Fire Emblem games have a history of normalising harmful romances

It’s understandable for many to not know the history of the series since 3H was insanely successful and it brought a lot of new fans. Fire Emblem has always been a character driven game where making your units bond was encouraged both for gameplay and story reasons. Some end in special romantic epilogues, and some of those relationships were concerning to say the least: Sylvia, 14 years old, can marry every eligible man in Genealogy of the Holy War, Jill from Radiant Dawn, 18, can marry her father’s protegé who is 34. This is not a new phenomenon for the series, it just became more noticeable and malicious post-Awakening, because it became first person fanservice.

FE decided to rehaul the series sometime in 2011 by including dating sim elements, which made it explode in popularity. Avatars were introduced to represent the player in-game, allowing them to marry whoever they wanted. The first game to include a pseudo-dating sim was Awakening, released in 2012. The player can marry every named playable character, on top of the usual FE shipping mechanics . Donnel, Nowi and Ricken, all children, are part of your party. Nowi is a thousand year old dragon that looks like a child of 11-15. She loves playing, and throws tantrums, and overall acts very childishly, but the narrative insists that she’s really an adult feigning childishness.

In Fire Emblem lore, dragons are veeeery slow ageing people with the power to transform into dragons, which means they can be biologically still children even when they’re hundreds or thousands of years old. Tiki, another similar character, is considered a child in Shadow Dragon by her adult dragon family while explicitly being around Nowi’s age. Despite evidence to the contrary, Awakening treats Nowi like an adult who can marry. Fire Emblem had previously included many dragon child characters in the past, but none were romantic options for anyone, and they were considered a younger sibling of sorts. Nowi was a first in the series, and after her inclusion these romances became common with characters like Nyx in Fates and Flayn and Sothis in Three Houses. Worth noting is her design, which is incredibly sexualised. A (not so) fun fact is that the outfit designer of Awakening and Fates was none other than Three Houses’ future director, Toshiyuki Kusakihara:

Ricken and Donnel are just regular 13-15 year old boys. No magic. Other adult characters and your avatar just marry them, and it’s stated they will have children in the future. The next game, Fates, actually managed to outdo this somehow: Your pedophilic romance options are now five, and unlike Awakening’s avatar Robin, whose age was unknown and could potentially be portrayed in their mid-teens, Corrin canonically is in the 18-21 age range, making this unambiguous pedophilia. Fates is a very standout game when it comes to Fire Emblem’s worst parts: There’s no “children from the future” excuse for the avatar having children like in Awakening. The avatar impregnates all spouses (or gets pregnant) and has the child after an in-game time skip, which means you can canonically impregnate your approximately 15 year old sister in a Fire Emblem game. You really do not want to stan these devs.

pictured: definitely not 18, even if the english localization really tried to pull that.

Which is yet another thing in this game: Incest with adopted siblings is possible and even encouraged. Incest is constantly fetishized through the character of Camilla, who is an attractive and sexualized older sister obsessed with the main character. Another (not so) fun fact is that most characters will continue to call you ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ in the story even if you’re married because Fire Emblem rarely changes the story to fit with your marriage options. The most insidious thing about the incest and pedophilic couples in Fates is that they’re completely normalized. It’s not shown as abusive, and they look like normal couples that could even look cute out of context. They confess their love, tease each other, blush and have cutesy epilogues.

pictured: marrying your sibling and a literal child

All of this is to end with the conclusion that this is a constant pattern with Fire Emblem, especially the ones with marriage. Any potentially awful relationships portrayed are not outwardly abusive. You won’t catch Xander gaslighting Corrin, or anything. They’re a “cute” relationship that just happens to be incest. Their interactions are not outwardly unhealthy, and it’s tailor made for ‘’’harmless’’’ shipping, but in the end, it’s incest and pedophilia portrayed as a valid pairing that’s “healthy” by all means. It’s normalization of something that’s objectively horrifying to live through. As a CSA victim, Fates literally made me quit the franchise for all the years it was popular.

When Three Houses announced that it would take place in a school while you play a teacher, after seeing all of this play out all FE fans could feel was dread. When 3H announced even later that all romance would take place post-time skip everyone forgot about their reservations instantly— ignoring the fact that everyone being over 18 when marriage happens doesn’t absolve all potential problems with predatory writing. How you write a couple with an age gap is critical. Moving on with Actual Three Houses:

Byleth has a canon age unlike Corrin and Robin, but the game tries to hide it

Corrin and Robin were both avatars meant to be somewhat customized. Byleth cannot be customized. They have a set appearance and age. You can choose Byleth’s name, gender and birthday when you start up the game, but Byleth canonically cannot be born anywhere after September 20th 1159, their “canon” birthday, since their father states in his diary that they’re already alive. 3H starts in the year 1180, which makes Byleth 20 or already 21 depending on their chosen birthday.

All other Three Houses characters have their ages shown clearly in their unit menu, and all bios update accordingly when you learn new information, including yours. Byleth’s age is revealed in a cutscene, but despite this, the game tries to “hide” their age. This is all Byleth has in their bio even well into the endgame:

It’s presumably so the player can “headcanon” their age, as the player avatar, but they still have a canon age, because they’re not a customizable one. It’s a very odd design choice that makes no sense until you consider that the game is romantically pushing teenagers at you. Romanceable students range from 14 to 22 years old before the time skip, but the great majority are in the 15-18 range. Early on, when you introduce yourself to your students, they seem taken aback by how young you are and comment how you seem like you’re “their age.” This is your only dialogue option in response:

No sixteen year old has ever told a twenty/-one year old that they’re the same age, but this is anime high school dating sim logic. An addendum is that this game has incredibly shallow dialogue options to hide how linear it really is, and this is the first glaring instance. This comes up later on with the romance options—you have little to no options to reject a student’s advances. Boundaries as both a player and RPG protagonist are non-existent in this game.

pictured: “yes” and “sure why not” dialogue options to agreeing to meet with a student alone. linhardt just turned 17 last month

Byleth can flirt pre-time skip

Most of your units are students, thus all romance should in theory, stay in the war phase…. Which doesn’t happen at all. All the narrative framing of characters’ “closeness” and foreshadowing of romance are definitely a part of the school phase. The worst offender by far is an in-game event called the Goddess Tower, the school’s local romantic spot. It’s said in universe that a man and a woman who make a vow there on a specific night will stay together forever, and this is a prelude to the marriage scenes five years later, which will take place in that Tower. You can even pick who to bring with you to the Tower, and this is what Byleth says to themselves before the drop down menu shows up:

this is one of those lines that’s like semi-innocuous, since byleth is addressing the player here, but what the fuck is a teacher doing thinking about a student “that way”???? my girl doesn’t know there will be a 5 year time skip where they’re going to be legal she’s just saying this about a bunch of sixteen year olds.

The Goddess Tower itself is a mess of bungled flirting and unnatural romantic scenes, made all the worse by the fact that you can only trigger this scene with a student. Older characters like Seteth, Catherine and Shamir are locked out of the Goddess Tower. They can’t be picked from the menu, and if they’re your highest support, the game will default to the next highest supported student. Here’s some lines from Ingrid’s scene:

ingrid is 17 when this takes place. the youngest byleth possible is well over 21 and the oldest is turning 22 next month

Check out this post for more examples of the Goddess Tower. Byleth’s dialogue options here are right out of a god damn PSA about child safety. They genuinely come off as a huge creep here, especially “Just the two of us….” My dude.

Thankfully one of the few instances where you can turn the student down, but notable anyway. Dorothea’s C support, where you have the option of following her flirty lead, and her response will be the same regardless of your choice:

Another infamous bit of inappropriate flirting is Edelgard’s Japanese C1 support, which you’re likely to unlock before her 18th birthday in June because it’s her very first support:

This was thankfully removed in the English version (Though she still has the same flustered reaction), but the intentions are there. Curiously, I’ve seen many supporters of the Byleth/Edelgard ship say they were upset this was removed, while simultaneously denying the ship has any grooming connotations whatsoever— when an authority figure making ha ha, unless? 😳 sexual jokes in front of underage/barely legal kids to see their reaction is textbook grooming:

Once a trusting or special relationship is created, the offender may carefully test the victim’s reaction to sex. (x)

Not helping is the fact that Edelgard falling in love with Byleth during the school phase is practically canon judging by dialogue in CF of her missing you “more” than the others. Which leads to:

Some interactions pre-time skip resemble grooming tactics

In fans’ minds the lack of boundaries are somewhat mitigated by Byleth’s supposed good intentions, and it’s common to hear fans say Byleth obviously didn’t go to Garreg Mach intending to marry one of the kids they’re teaching because grooming must be malicious from the start. However, it’s well known that unlike premeditated abuse of younger kids, sexual abuse of older teens often happens by “accident”

In contrast, educators who teach at the late middle and high school level target victims in this age range. They might be outstanding teachers, although they may also be mediocre (Shakeshaft, 2003). Sexual abuse at this level may be less premeditated and planned and more often a result of bad judgment (Shakeshaft, 2004). (x)

In other words, by putting zero boundaries between teacher and students and enabling weird situations, which is 3H to a T. Many students flirt, but Byleth doesn’t say anything, or even flirts back.

Secondly, Byleth is like… barely a character, so this isn’t meant to be a callout post accusing them of being a manipulative abuser or whatever, because this is about the dev team putting teenagers in these flirty positions to satisfy the player that Byleth is meant to represent. Byleth is just the plot device they use to do so. People often say this flirting isn’t grooming because Byleth has “good intentions,” but they’re a self-insert, and a self-insert doesn’t have to have any in-universe intentions because the outside writing drives their actions— the thing is we KNOW these writers are not above writing pedophilia as harmless romance. People project good intentions on Byleth, because that’s the avatar. You’re supposed to project on them. This of course includes their “good intentions,” and when I play 3H I headcanon that too, but canonically speaking, these intentions are 100% ambiguous. They never voice attraction to another student, or disgust at the thought of dating them because they speak in small, limited dialogue options and thought bubbles. We don’t have a real, canon indication that they would oppose dating a student before the time skip nor that they would actually do it.

What we do have are the canonical interactions that make people uncomfortable, however. Byleth can think of students in “that way” when the Gatekeeper describes a romantic getaway on the Goddess Tower. If we take them at face value, then their dialogue options clearly establish that they’re okay with flirting with students as young as fifteen, at the very least. They “die” before potentially starting to date any of them for real, but the beginnings of an uncomfortable romance are there and the game fully embraces this as okay .

This is all a result of the writing. Fates never condemned you for picking your sister over any of the other thirty (?) romanceable characters, just like Three Houses doesn’t condemn you for picking Lysithea over any older women in the teaching staff. It’s just another S support option, and it even gets some sweet extra content. She’s touched that you care for her, and you do everything in your power to take care of her frail health, and you guys get happily married. No one ever mentions that you were her high school teacher when she was fifteen and you met at said high school, and she was your favourite student— and this is, you know, something of an important detail in any relationship. Just like Fates, it’s sweet and shippable out of context, which just encourages normalization. How dare you say this is unhealthy? It’s tender! Look how much he loves her!

The thing is that 3H initially presents your students as your charges in school. You’re unambiguously in charge of them as both tactician and instructor, even if you treat each other in a familiar way. Even if most students technically outrank you as nobles, Garreg Mach as politically neutral ground implicitly puts you above them as their teacher. The younger ones are vulnerable teenagers, away from home in a boarding school. Most have some sort of underlying emotional problem that they come to you for. They come to you for advice, and sometimes just venting. You can give them gifts, and have tea every week with them if you so wish in an off-screen conversation. Tea also serves as the “skinship” of this game where you get to see the anime boy/girl of your dreams from up-close, which is a pretty creepy thing to do with a fifteen year old anime girl even out of universe, but I digress.

Looking at this chart in the essay I linked earlier gave me a little bit of a stroke, because the “Strategies” aspects are all things you do in 3H prior to the time-skip:

This is obviously accidental, but still concerning because we know these devs have a twisted idea of what romance is, and that culminated in what I sincerely hope is an unintended but still eerily accurate portrayal of grooming.

Emotional confidence, teatime and gifts, flirting, making a vow together at the Goddess Tower, sex jokes, are all things you do pre-timeskip, and some student’s personal arcs make this even worse. Marianne, Dimitri and Bernadetta have mental illnesses, and they heavily rely on you for support. Edelgard and Sylvain express attraction towards you. You meet Felix’s father and he puts his full trust in you. Ignatz, Bernadetta and Marianne have very low self-esteem. Characters like Ashe and Annette have major parental issues that they discuss with you. In short, you see them at their most vulnerable as kids, and then get together as adults.

About the only thing you don’t do pre-time skip in that list is “Isolate,” but some character arcs post time skip have this distinct vibe nonetheless. Many students leave their homes in the war phase explicitly because of you and no other reason. CF Ingrid in particular outright betrays Faerghus and everything she knew for you, as she says she doesn’t really believe in Edelgard’s war. Knowing you as a teacher can string her along in her Goddess Tower scene while she’s underage puts this in an awkward perspective.

This is what makes the five year time skip hold little weight. Everyone is an adult when the relationship is consummated, yes, but it starts pre-time skip.

Emotionally vulnerable teenagers having a strong relationship and frequent alone time with their older teacher, who is a confidant and someone that makes them feel special is already looking bad, but the absolute loyalty, idolisation and close relationship when they’re adults only makes it worse, even if it’s probably just a result of poorly thought out game design and player pandering gone wrong.

It’s not just player pandering, however. The devs just clearly think these relationships are okay. Other non-Byleth student/teacher romances deserve a mention, too—Manuela is forty something and thinks of her romantic potential with some 19 year-old:

Thankfully, this support ends at B, but others don’t. She has romantic endings with Lorenz, Ferdinand and Dorothea, who she even canonically met before Garreg Mach as a child and who idolises her as an opera star. The game doesn’t stop at the normalisation of grooming with Byleth, they’re just the most noticeable example, especially since it’s a power fantasy for the player who can romance all of them, not just a few.

The time skip had the opportunity to fix some of the creepy implications, but it didn’t

People like to look at the time-skip as a justification of romance. That 15 year old kid is 20 now, after all, and your students are adults, who have matured and grown outside of your influence.... Except your interactions with them remain virtually the same. They still call you Professor and hold you in some extremely high esteem as an authority figure.

Three Houses has an avatar worship problem like all newer Fire Emblem games and this definitely contributes to the uncomfortable implications in the narrative, because literally everyone respects you and adores you to an uncomfortable degree. Even as grown ass adults, the avatar worship just makes it seem like your students still idolize you like when they were kids awe struck by how cool you are.

They don’t show the change from “mentor” to “peer” satisfactorily, like they intended for the romance elements to work. Byleth’s name is customizable, making a first name basis difficult, but they easily could have changed your war phase title to something that would make it seem like your students’ view of you changed, like a military title such as Commander, or even just Eisner, your canonical last name. All students still call you “Professor,” in the war phase, though. Some students even call you Professor when you’re about to propose to them in the S support, like Lysithea. Leonie, one of the oldest students who is actually your age, has this to say about calling you by your name… you know, like a normal peer and friend would:

White Clouds is also a whole year while VW, AM, and SS take place during six to seven months, CF during five. You spend more time as their teacher and mentor than as “peers,” so Leonie’s position is pretty understandable despite being like, barely a year younger than you.

To rewind, this game lets you pick a “special” student pre-time skip, who you’re encouraged to build bonds with through tea, gifts and the Goddess Tower. You’re their favourite teacher, as said by many other characters. They grow up and join you in your war regardless of who they have to fight, some even just to be with you. They still affectionately call you Professor, and look up to you. You can then marry them. This is unironically seen as both acceptable and even romantic.

Many of these interactions like tea are gameplay elements and thus come off as the devs not thinking too hard about it. Except, again, we know they have no problem in writing outright pedophilia, but Fates in particular had heavy backlash over this, which explains the need to tone it down a little. Grooming was their “compromise” between not turning off the casual audience while still cheekily pandering to that crowd. Everyone is technically over eighteen in Three Houses, even if they act extremely similar to their teenage selves. The “technically 1000 year old” romances like Flayn and Sothis were also left intact.

This is an important distinction, because a bit of a popular “it’s not grooming” argument when dealing with the war phase is Byleth’s weird dragon powers slowing their aging. Unlike the kids, all adult non-students in Three Houses undergo no portrait changes during the time skip, including Byleth. The thing is that in Chapter 10, they receive dragon powers as part of some plot nonsense, so it has different implications than just anime hating everyone over 25. There’s implications in the game that this definitely affected their ability to age normally, such as the Flayn ending:

However, we don’t know how their aging was affected and to what extent. Three Houses’ lore didn’t specify much about the way dragons age. Rhea undergoes dragon madness, so we can thus tentatively assume Fódlan’s dragons are similar to Archanea and Valentia’s dragons, which would mean there’s a chance Byleth even aged normally for a few years before slowing down significantly like Nah from Awakening did. It’s entirely possible they’re biologically 25-26 like they’re meant to be, because they didn’t physically die. They were just asleep.

Even if they really did not age a day over 21/22, it still makes the pre-time skip hold weight, however. Byleth can flirt with them as teens prior to any fantastical excuse, and they’re still a mentor figure in the students’ eyes, which goes on to colour every interaction with you in the war phase. Post-time skip everyone is legal, but they still have that history with you, and the game makes no real effort to change that whatsoever. It still fulfills the student/teacher fantasy despite the many, many technicalities it tries to pull out of its ass.

Intsys is self aware and knows that this upsets people

To say these devs probably didn’t mean it that way is not entirely impossible, but they don’t exactly inspire confidence. They even “acknowledge” their flippant way of treating teacher/student relationships in a DLC quest during school phase:

Of course, this is a silly complaint because a teacher being friendly with students is a good thing! Students learn better in a positive environment! The problem here is that it’s obviously referencing and mocking the people upset that this becomes romantic later on. I think anyone would have been able to forgive the overly friendly nature of Byleth and the students’ relationships if no line had been crossed regarding romance. This is Fire Emblem after all, and it wouldn’t be Fire Emblem without supports and relationships values.

But also, Intsys is very good at jokingly acknowledging when they’re being creepy rather than striving to do better. It’s not the first time they’ve done this. A really bold faced example is when the Fire Emblem mobile game widely known for fanservice released a ten year old child (no magic or dragons, either, just a child) dressed as a bride and had her say: “This outfit is just for the [bride] festival, don’t get any weird ideas!” when they were the ones who made a child bride for fanservice purposes.

this one was pretty fucked up even by their standards. comment sums it up

The devs also once called Camilla from Fates a “cow” in an interview for having huge breasts and a little tiara that looks like horns. They designed her that way, but then mocked her for looking like an oversexualized caricature. Any way you look at it, they’re well aware they’re being off-putting and cheekily being like, tee hee, I sure made a dating sim set in a high school! Which ultimately leads to the final point:

Though canon definitely has its problems, it’s less about canon and more about the devs’ bad intentions and the fans’ general lack of empathy for CSA victims:

This is not to diminish canon’s impact at all, because it’s outright malicious to portray an unhealthy relationship as cute and harmless. In short, they just pull technicality after technicality out of their ass to make student/teacher okay somehow instead of just..... not having student/teacher at all. After Fates having fucking incest, 3H and teacher grooming seems outright tame and that definitely contributed to the wide acceptance in the fanbase, because it’s less outrageously pandery. I can’t believe I have to say this in 2020, but…... that’s still not good, lads.

I will also admit there’s some nuance here regarding some of the students, especially those 20+ year olds who aren’t easy to manipulate teenagers like Mercedes. We can sit here and argue all day about whether or not this game legitimately 100% can be considered grooming because of those 20+ students, and all of those in-universe technicalities since there’s no real life academic journal on grooming who will talk about the offender being a dragon, but the end of the matter is that the devs chose to portray their pseudo-dating sim franchise in a school, while your MC is a teacher and most of the students are teens. These relationships are also 100% normalised and okay in-game. They did it with incest and with teacher/student, both topics that are majorly upsetting to CSA victims, and that alone is worth calling out. They even mocked people who were upset about it with a little DLC quest, just to rub it in.

This whole post was a critique of 3H and Intsys, but it’s impossible to critique the game without critiquing the fan culture around it, because the devs definitely had a fanbase in mind. We know they take feedback, since they toned it down after complaints about Fates, but the reason why they didn’t just get rid of pandering aspects, is because they’re popular. There’s a huge demand for this, and that’s exactly why they keep doing it, and it’s the simple reason that online anime spaces full of adults have always placed a particular interest in teens and sexualising and shipping them. A Fire Emblem game set in a school with a calendar and a lot of romantic and social elements that started development in 2017 just screams Persona 5 inspired. Fans obviously noticed.

”edelgard is soooo thirsty” jokes are a lot less funny if you know going for the thirsty kid is a legit strategy

Now, I don’t know shit about Atlus, and after seeing all these memes regarding Persona 5 and the fans’ positive reaction to them, I have zero intentions to play it, but I’ve unfortunately played every single FE game and watched the transition to classic FE to 3DS FE to 3H. I have my criticisms about modern FE’s writing quality for sure, and while I obviously can’t say it used to be perfect because it was still a fairly mediocre (but fun) game about teenagers beating up dragons, it’s now become one of the single most unfriendly fanbases if you’ve gone through any kind of sexual trauma. Incest shipping, pedophilic shipping, and sexualizing teenagers was always there to some extent, but it’s blown up now that the devs have emboldened those fans by doing it in canon itself. It’s rampant, especially on “waifu” circles, and now grooming ships are mainstream and everywhere. Even LGBT friendly “safe spaces” are unbrowsable. F!Edeleth in particular is commonly seen as the holy grail of wlw representation. Linhardt is the most popular M/M option despite the other two being adults. Doromanuela was given a shout-out by Dorothea’s English voice actress.

Old FE games had background things like that all the time, (Roy/Cecilia is Literally gender swapped Petra/Byleth) but the keyword here is background. Not like... 80% of the ships involving the MC in game, which means you weren’t bombarded with this every day. Worse, the discussion about this topic has been non-existent. Reddit has not touched this at all despite the community there being well known for meticulous criticism, Twitter and Tumblr have seen its fair share of discourse, but it’s quickly dismissed. Just click here to watch people dismiss the concerns of every single grooming and CSA victim, or even call them stupid like we can’t recognize this shit in every single fandom. Of note are the fans who dismiss grooming concerns by saying all flirting occurs post time skip (which is false, as we just said) and the characters are only 3-6 years apart anyway……………….. and then gleefully consume/produce pre-time skip content:

miscellaneous tags on a pre-time skip linleth comic (20/21/22 and 16/17 if you’re not keeping count) not posting the comic itself cause i don’t want anon hate lol

While there’s an argument to be made for romance with anyone who was 20+ pre-time skip, there is NONE for the underage kids. None. And like, even if you somehow still want to argue that 3H itself isn’t grooming because of the time skip, a huge chunk of the fanworks objectively are, and this is a huge problem that needs to be called out and nobody does so whatsoever. That comic has 2500+ notes.

This isn’t even a call to tell people to throw out their copies and riot, just to be aware of this and try to make fan spaces a little more bearable for CSA victims. A lot of people call this ‘toxic cancel culture’ and whatnot, but I personally can’t defend a dev team who I KNOW has done heinous things in the past, and continue to support the pedophilic mentality in online anime fan spaces but like, in a cheeky subtle way. They easily could have made Byleth a student who tutors the others because of their experienced mercenary background with Jeralt, or just not let them romance the kids at all. They could have pleased both the dating sim and high school camps by letting you choose to be either a 21+ teacher or a 17 year old student with the appropriate romance options, too. They didn’t do any of this, and their questionable past begs me to ask why, and none of the answers I can come up with are very encouraging. They also even blatantly gave you extra content when romancing students.

I hope contextualizing the 3H grooming at least makes some people understand why it’s so upsetting to see it everywhere. It’s just the decent thing to do to tag your posts, and to not dismiss any of these things. It’s just the decent thing to do to listen to people who are sharing their experiences and respecting their boundaries if they simply do not want to interact with you if you decide to continue supporting Intsys.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. Stan Claude von Riegan.

#t #fire emblem #fire emblem three houses #fe3h #grooming mention #csa ment

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fantasyinvader · 3 years

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Beat Binding Blade tonight

So, right off the bat I'm going to admit. I abused the arena and save states. This is a really, really hard game. And while I enjoyed it, I'm going to give three things I didn't like about it.

1)Enemy reinforcements arrive at the end of the player phase, and can attack during the enemy phase. That is unfair, especially when I assume that parking a unit on the spawn point will prevent them (It doesn't) or my healer just happens to be in the area. I like difficult games, but when I fail at something in those I want to feel like it's my fault for doing so. When I die in Bloodborne or lose a unit in Fates Conquest, I'm willing to accept it because I felt it was fair (plus I'll just restart the chapter in Conquest anyway). I could have not died if I had played a little better. This game was not fair when it did that.

2)The supports. A lot of the stuff about the characters is locked away in their supports, since this is one of the old Fire Emblems where it throws units your way because it's assuming you didn't reset the game when one died. They don't get cutscenes to be important, and with only five supports per character (barring if one dies, then any unit that had supports with gets those supports back). And even then, getting an A rank doesn't pair up any units except for Roy. So you don't get to play love doctor here, it's only really there for the stat boosts. But in the case of my boy, he needs those supports in order for his character to fully come through.

3)I can take 8 units into the final battle, and they're the only ones who get full ending cards. Everyone else just gets a single line. Kinda weak if I use someone like Fir for most of the game, but bench her at the end to give Rutget Durandal.

Even with my cheating, I still enjoyed this game. Mostly for the story. When Fire Emblem first appeared in Smash Brothers Melee, as a kid it instantly caught my attention. Roy and Marth just looked so cool with their swords and armor (true fact: My favorite design for Link is the Skyward Sword design, simply because it has chainmail under the tunic. I get it, the tunic is iconic but SS's Link just looks practical), and I preferred Roy because I though his fully-charged shield breaker hurting him was cool. I even keep a Cipher card of his in my wallet for good luck. I wanted to know what Fire Emblem was, what kind of game it was. My friend showed me a screenshot of the upcoming GBA game in Nintendo power, which I got for the following Christmas (sadly, I didn't get Sacred Stones as I got a PS2 the following year). I loved that game, but the idea that I was playing as Roy's father always was a bit of a sour point for me. It's because of that game when I got a 2DS a decade later, because I wanted to game but kept getting pulled away from my console, I eventually went back to Fire Emblem.

And, I'm going to admit, Binding Blade hurt me because I played Blazing Blade first. It really did. I mean, Hector dies early on, Lyn is presumably dead hell a lot of my old comrades probably died in this war, Eliwood's wife dies shortly after they are married while Eliwood is more useless than ever, the kid I saved in Bern becomes a genocidal maniac, and the fact that the characters of Blazing Blade kinda caused this to happen by releasing the seals on the Legendary Weapons in their own quest... It kinda bugs me that the Legendary Weapons I used in Blazing Blade are in their trap filled storage places. Like, who returned them there? And if I have characters from that game returning in Binding, I find it strange they don't comment on needing them again. But this is a case of the game trying to be a prequel to a story that wasn't written with it in mind.

But at the end of the day, one thing just kept popping up in my mind. Binding Blade is the antithesis of the Crimson Flower route from Three Houses. I know they said Genealogy of the Holy War was an inspiration, but I can't help it. I've seen so many people try to praise that said route as some sort of denouncement of the rest of the franchise. That it's about putting power in the hands of the people (it's not) instead of having some Lord be the good king. Granted, the Mandate of Heaven seems like it's a running theme of the series, so without understanding what that is I can understand why people don't grasp what that part of the message. But Binding Blade, it just hit so many things on the nose that I needed to say something.

So without further adieu, I'm just going to bring up a few points.

With Regards to Humanity

It's interesting how both Zephiel and Edelgard come at this from different angles. Sure, they both lead wars of conquest across the entire continent, and I'm guessing Zeph didn't tell his troops what he was planning on doing once he won so there's likely a level of deception going on there as well. He really doesn't care for his fellow man, and the game goes out of it's way to show us why. Hatred, greed, or even selling out your people in the name of self-preservation. The game doesn't shy away from showing us any of this, saying that it's wrong and thus why Roy has to kick some guy's arse. Zephiel knows this, but in Edelgard's case? She's out there fighting for absolute power, destroying anyone who won't bend the knee to her while those who do out of self-preservation like House Gloucester are rewarded for it.

In essence, Edelgard is everything Zephiel saw wrong with the human race, she is why he felt we needed to go extinct. The very things he condemns humanity for are the things she reward. Zephiel would have actually handed over power to those he felt deserved it if he had won, whereas Edelgard is demonstrably shown to hold onto power until near the end of her life. One wants humanity dead, the other wants all the dragons. They even oppose each other in their classes. Edelgard is based on the red emperor archetype, she wears red, her class is the heavily-armored Emperor and her weapon of choice is an axe. Zephiel is a king, armoed but wearing purple and he uses a sword in battle.

Even if they both have screwed up history with their family's due to their father's inability to keep it in his pants, they're both presented as villains despite being ideologically opposed which goes to show with Fire Emblem the method IS the message.

Ancient Wars, Super Powered Weapons and Lies.

War of Heroes vs. The Scouring. The former is an event where the full details are shrouded in mystery, up to the player to piece together the clues and figure out the truth for themselves...or in Crimson Flower's case, ignore the truth and act out in your ignorance.With Binding Blade though, when the truth starts coming out, it hits hard. I mean, right from the beginning of the game we're told man was the one who broke the peace by attacking the dragons, but then we learn that those legendary weapons messed up the environment, resulting in dragons needing to use human forms only to be slaughtered by man. Dragons were blamed for the environment, the people who used those weapons were revered as heroes. We don't know why mankind launched their attack, but we do know that they weren't able to slay the Demon Dragon, one who had her soul destroyed in order to control her, because the Heroes felt sorry for her. It's making dragons out to be the victims here, much like the dragons in Three Houses. But Crimson Flower only serves to demonize them, acting like they can't understand humanity when the dragons in that game are a lot closer to humans emotionally than the ancient dragons in Elibe.

The Elites in comparison weren't heroes, and that lie has been confirmed as Rhea trying to make peace.

The good ending for Binding Blade is being able to save the dragon whose soul was destroyed, whereas Crimson Flower ends with slaying a dragon after you've spent the entire game triggering her (and is the ending that leads to oppressive rule under Edelgard, in addition to the only ending without sunlight. What? You thought you'd get the good ending when her final boss theme was playing on the last stage?). Also, you need all the Legendary weapons in order to unlock the final stages, which all play into the big mystery. Crimson Flower requires the player to not understand that the world-building was done to support fighting against Edelgard instead.

Merits of a leader

Let's not beat around the bush here, Roy will not carry you through Binding Blade. His bases are low, and while he has good growths he is unable to promote until the very end of the game. Even then, you need to save the Binding Blade's usage to ensure you get the good ending. Roy is also very unsure of himself, thrust into a position of leadership despite his young age. But look at what happens when he succeeds, he manages to overcome the odds and take down the mightiest army on the continent. At the end of the game, he's shown himself as more than capable of leading. Not to mention, he also believes that humans and dragons can live together, even seeing this in Acadia (and if Ninian was his mother, he's unknowingly proof of this as he is 1/4 dragon himself. May explain his poor bases). If he marries Liliana, he even becomes a King for likely much of the same reason Byleth does in SS/VW (most leaders are dead following the war, plus combining his territory with Ostia which had already taken over Lyn's land after she abdicated/married Hector). Roy learns the truth as already established.

Compare this to Crimson Flower Byleth. Byleth leads the Black Eagle Strike Force, but credit for it goes to Edelgard. Byleth never gets any recognition for this, no position of authority despite proving themselves, instead that goes to Caspar Jenkins of all people, and ends the war continuing to fight TWSITD from the shadows to support Edelgard's regime. And if you read between the lines, Edelgard is NOT a good leader, resorting to bribes, threats, cronyism, secret police, propaganda, and even TWSITD's support and later stolen tech in order to maintain her rule. Byleth lost whatever emotional development they got from White Clouds during this route, once again becoming the Ashen Demon, and is even willing to let themselves die if they can't keep their “humanity” in check showing a distaste for their own draconic heritage (showing humans and dragons can't live together in this timeline). They didn't grow into being a leader, they devolved into being Edelgard's unthinking muscle. Byleth never learns the truth in this route, falling for Edelgard's manipulations resulting in them losing Enlightened One/Nirvana status.

Not to mention, Heroes Relics have really low weapon levels. In theory, they can be used by anyone but only safely by those with Crests and most fully with a matching Crest. Legendary Weapons, on the other hand, can be used by anyone with an S rank in their type. Your characters have to EARN the right to use those things and you'll need them to deal with all the Manaketes during the final level, whereas Relics aren't exactly that level of broken.

Honestly, seeing the ending of Binding Blade and Idunn recovering put at least one tear in my eye. Crimson Flower's just made me feel like the game was calling me an idiot (which considering the Nirvana/Enlightenment thing, it kinda was). I would love if Binding Blade got the Echoes treatment, or even if they just did a GBA collection for the Switch. But after all these years, one thing is as certain now as it was when I was a kid.

In this house, ROY'S OUR BOY!

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another-rogue-trevelyan · 3 years

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If you liked Dragon Age Masterlist

If you’re anything like me, you’re into niche market, high fantasy, single player RPGs, preferably with a historical setting and romance options. So if you’re looking for a new game, here I am with some suggestions!

Sorted by studio:

Bethesda:

Oblivion (2006)

“In the shadow of evil, a hero will rise from the ashes of a fallen empire. The gates have been opened, and the battle has begun. Only one thing can save the world from Mehrunes Dagon and the demonic hordes of Oblivion. The true heir of the Septim line must be found and restored to the Imperial throne. The fate of the world rests in the hands of one. Find him, and shut the jaws of Oblivion.”

The Elder Scrolls series were my gateway into RPGs and hold a special place in my heart. Oblivion features a wide open world, immersive combat, and the ability to customize race, class, and gender.

Skyrim (2011)

“The Empire of Tamriel is on the edge. The High King of Skyrim has been murdered. Alliances form as claims to the throne are made. In the midst of this conflict, a far more dangerous, ancient evil is awakened. Dragons, long lost to the passages of the Elder Scrolls, have returned to Tamriel. The future of Skyrim, even the Empire itself, hangs in the balance as they wait for the prophesized Dragonborn to come; a hero born with the power of The Voice, and the only one who can stand amongst the dragons.”

I have sunk so many hours into this game and still have not experienced all there is to experience. Just like Oblivion, Skyrim offers the ability to customize your character and find a play style that suits you. A huge open world offers tons of opportunity for exploration and questing. You could play this game many, many hours and not even touch the main quest if you wanted to.

BioWare:

Mass Effect Legendary Edition (2021)

Just do it. Just fucking do it I’m still sobbing I’ve never had a game wreck me in this way. I might possibly like it more than Dragon Age which feels sacrilegious to say but it was so good. You follow Commander Shepard (customizable) for three whole games and the choices have serious consequences. Also, romance. Truthfully this might be the most well written storyline I’ve ever seen in a video game. Also, same studio as Dragon Age.

CD Projekt:

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt (2015)

I’ll let the website description speak for itself, but Witcher III was good enough that I didn’t mind being forced to play as a man (those who know me know that I exclusively prefer to play women and often dislike games where I can’t do so)! The characters that make up this story are captivating and suck you into their world, leaving you with some tough choices to make. Also, bonus points for romance! (Yen is one of my all time favorite characters, Triss never stood a chance for me. Sorry Triss fans 😂)

Larian:

Divinity Original Sin 2 (2017)

“The Divine is dead. The Void approaches. And the powers lying dormant within you are soon to awaken. Choose your role in a BAFTA-winning story, and explore a world that reacts to who you are, and the choices you make. With five races to choose from, and an adventure playable solo or as a party of up to four, lay waste to an oppressive order in a world afraid of magic. Become the God the world so desperately needs.”

Full disclosure, I have not finished playing this one yet and will update when I do, but what I’ve played so far has been great! A classic, turn-based RPG that allows you a wide range of character customization. I find this game incredibly satisfying to be a rogue (my preferred class) because it lets me live my dream of throwing knives at people. Also, romance!

Baldur’s Gate III beta (2020)

“An ancient evil has returned to Baldur's Gate, intent on devouring it from the inside out. The fate of Faerûn lies in your hands. Alone, you may resist. But together, you can overcome. Gather your party.”

Fair warning, as of my most recent update to this post (March 30th, 2021) this game is still in a beta phase, which means it is NOT complete and has aspects that are missing, glitchy, or subject to change. With that being said, I’m so obsessed. It’s so, so good already and is only getting better. Another wide open world to explore with a group of companions with strong and sometimes clashing personalities, choices are abundant in this game and will affect how your party members think of you. This game so far gives me the feeling that choices are complicated and aren’t always easy to tell which is morally right, which I personally love. Also, I can be a sarcastic ass with a good heart, which is always fun. Astarion basically owns me now, but if you can resist him there are plentiful other romance choices as well! Customization is already a wider range than I’ve seen in most RPGs and they haven’t even finished the character creator yet, which has me SO excited for the finished product. Also - good hair?!??!! I love it!

Lionhead:

Fable III (2010)

“Lead a revolution to take control of Albion, fight alongside your people, and experience love and loss while preparing to defend the kingdom against a looming threat. Your choices as ruler will lead to consequences felt across the entire land.”

I’ll be honest, this one isn’t my favorite on the list, but was good enough to still make it! This game allows you to choose between playing as the prince or the princess on a quest to save your kingdom from itself, and then a greater threat as well. The game takes place in a kingdom loosely modeled after industrial England, and what did score it some major points were (SPOILER WARNING - skip the purple if you don’t want to know!) that the last act of the game lets you play as the monarch, where you are forced to make some tough decisions in order to save your kingdom. It is very easy to back yourself into a corner, pinch pennies in order to fund the army and save the kingdom, but make your citizens hate you because of it. You’re gonna have to be very, very careful, which is something I did really enjoy about this game. (I’ve heard Fable II was better, and that’s also on my list to try, will update in the future!)

Nintendo:

Fire Emblem Three Houses (2019)

“War is coming to the continent of Fódlan. Here, order is maintained by the Church of Seiros, which hosts the prestigious Officer’s Academy within its headquarters. You are invited to teach one of its three mighty houses, each comprised of students brimming with personality and represented by a royal from one of three territories. As their professor, you must lead your students in their academic lives and in turn-based, tactical RPG battles wrought with strategic, new twists to overcome. Which house, and which path, will you choose?”

Currently playing this one and I’m so addicted! This one is slightly outside of my usual taste but it has made me interested in playing more games like it. The player controls Byleth (you can rename them if you wish), who becomes a professor of combat and battle tactics despite their young age at a monastery and finds themself in charge of a house of students. Battles are tactics and strategy based and classes are highly customizable. I sunk like 30 hours into this game in the last three days. I won’t say more about the plot to avoid spoilers, but it’s been a ton of fun and also has slow burn romance

Spiders:

Greedfall (2019)

This game destroyed my soul in the best way and when I finished it I immediately started a new game to play it again. You play as Lady or Lord De Sardet, Legate of the Congregation of Merchants and effectively the right hand of your cousin, who has been appointed governor of your new colony on the island. While I enjoy the combat in this game, which allows you the choice between one handed, two handed, magic, and pistols or rifles (save that ammo for when you really need it!), this game focuses heavily on diplomacy and relations. Be careful what information you give to whom and how you treat every decision. The enemies you make early on might be people you need on your side later. I also love that choices aren’t always clearly right or wrong, and often are more complicated than they first appear. Even the best intentions can sometimes go awry.

Ubisoft:

Assassin’s Creed, Syndicate (2015)

“London, 1868. In the heart of the Industrial Revolution, lead your underworld organization and grow your influence to fight those who exploit the less privileged in the name of progress”

Another one that I’ll admit, I haven’t finished, and is definitely the odd one out on the list because it’s set in Victorian England, but I was having fun with what I had played so far before Greedfall distracted me. In this game, you alternate between controlling twins Jacob and Evie Frye as you explore and liberate London while meeting famous historical figures and running a gang on the side.

Assassin’s Creed, Origins (2017)

“Ancient Egypt, a land of majesty and intrigue, is disappearing in a ruthless fight for power. Unveil dark secrets and forgotten myths as you go back to the one founding moment: The Origins of the Assassin’s Brotherhood.”

In the spirit of honesty, I haven’t started this one yet, but I am so confident that I’m gonna love it when I do that it’s here anyway. I’ve purchased it, and will get to it soon, I swear! In the meantime, I wanted to put it here because I’m confident some of you will enjoy it. Will come back with a review once I know more.

Assassin’s Creed, Odyssey (2018)

“Write your own epic odyssey and become a legendary Spartan hero in Assassin’s Creed® Odyssey, an inspiring adventure where you must forge your destiny and define your own path in a world on the brink of tearing itself apart. Influence how history unfolds as you experience a rich and ever-changing world shaped by your decisions.”

Y’all this game owned my soul for a while. I’ve sunk so many hours into it. You have a choice to play as either Kassandra or Alexios and navigate the wonders of Ancient Greece. The world is stunning, the choices are important, and this game took a big step for the assassins creed series in becoming a true RPG. I can’t recommend this one enough, you should absolutely go for it!

Assassin’s Creed, Valhalla (2020)

“Become Eivor, a legendary Viking warrior. Explore England's Dark Ages as you raid your enemies, grow your settlement, and build your political power in the quest to earn a place among the gods in Valhalla.”

This game is brand new, hot off the press, and has already been a massive hit. I have only JUST started playing it and am about an hour in, but so far so good! It’s here on my recommendations list because of its wild popularity and because I’ve already enjoyed other games in this series, so I feel confident that some of my fellow dragon age fans will enjoy it. Will update again once I get further in.

Other games on my To Be Played list (otherwise known as things I don’t want to recommend because I know almost nothing about them but will update here after I know more)

-Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2

-Horizon Zero Dawn

-Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag

-Fable 1 and 2

-Kingdoms of Amalur

-Breath of the Wild

-Crimson Desert (not out yet but I’m intrigued)

#will update as I find more #if you liked dragon age #dragon age #video games #video game recommendations #op #rpgs #masterlist

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gascon-en-exil · 3 years

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This past weekend I picked up another Steam dating sim, Full Service. I don’t think I could do a complete write-up like I’ve done for some others, but it’s worth mentioning some highlights and lowlights.

The Good

A lot of content for an indie erotica game, with seven primary love interests, over 200 CGs, and over twenty endings running the gamut from tenderly romantic to wildly kinky to dubcon/noncon scenarios. There’s more actual gameplay here than any of the dating sims I’ve previously talked about, with some light scheduling and resource management and a gifting/heart level system comparable to Fire Emblem support ranks or even more so heart levels in those old Harvest Moon games (are those still a thing?). The second playthrough adds more story content to better explore certain character motivations, and there are even after stories - epilogues, essentially - unlocked after perfect endings that catch up with the characters some time later and feature brief animated sex scenes. In the tradition of most gay dating sim protagonists that I’ve come across, Tomoki is fully vers, and his love interests are evenly divided by favored position: three tops, three bottoms, and one fellow vers with a little additional flexibility for certain scenes/combinations. Speaking from extensive personal experience I consider this much more reflective of how the gay/bi male population as a whole approaches anal than something like To Trust an Incubus contorting itself to ensure that every single guy is vers.

The premise is that all the love interests work at a spa/massage parlor that specializes in happy endings. All of them could be considered sex workers, and some of them have alternative sources of income in a similar vein, ex. modeling. This is not the easiest subject matter to write well without being either overly glorifying or overly preachy, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that for the most part Full Service walks the fine line between the two. It doesn’t shy away from the potential dangers and hardships of sex work (especially in some of the bad endings) or from the issues it can create with forming romantic connections, but it also remains generally sex positive and never condemns its characters for what they choose to do with their lives or suggest that they’d all be happier doing something else. The most judgmental the game ever gets seems to be a projection of Tomoki’s own prudishness...which comes off as deliberately hypocritical considering all the raunchy things he can get up to over the course of the game.

Speaking of sex positivity, it’s actually impossible to go through a full playthrough and only have sex with one person, and the fact that around half of the love interests’ development occurs outside plot events means that it’s quite likely that Tomoki will sleep his way through half or more of the spa’s masseurs before all is said and done. Furthermore, despite what I said in my Chess of Blades review about a poly relationship being beyond the scope of a typical dating sim this one pulls it off with one pair of love interests that Tomoki can potentially end up with at the same time.

While she’s not a love interest, there’s a trans woman in the supporting cast. Her full story isn’t revealed until your second playthrough owing to her major role in the plot, but I appreciated the depiction of someone who discovered her gender identity/presentation through her sexual relationships with men. Thara may not be the sort of trans character who would appeal to typical fans of either yaoi or bara, but having explored feminization kink in the context of sex work myself I thought she was a nice addition.

The Bad

So...voice acting. Most of the game goes for vocal work in the style of Fire Emblem Awakening and Fates, short clips that only somewhat match up with the text on screen and are meant to be more suggestive of what the character is saying. Those are fine enough if not always exactly on point, but then there are the perfect endings which are fully voiced. There’s a fair bit of variance in this game’s vocal talent and even audio recording equipment in one or two cases - sadly one of my favorite love interests has a noticeably lower recording quality to his audio, and it’s no more evident than in his perfect ending where suddenly he’s voicing full lines of dialogue - and then there’s the recurring problem these games have with fully voiced sex scenes and how generally silly those come off. I really have to ask: does anyone genuinely feel that full or even partial voice acting adds anything to the eroticism of such scenes? Props to the voice actors for doing their best with the material, but the sounds of sex are just not easy to vocalize unless you’re actually doing it - at least not without sounding ridiculous.

Harping on lack of realism in gay sex scenes has become rather passé, and I can overlook things like everyone being muscled and well-endowed, no one wearing a condom, or there rarely being any mention of artificial lube. However, there is one glaring issue that over and over shattered my suspension of disbelief, because it comes up in like 80% of the game’s sex scenes: these men have no refractory periods, at all. Almost every scene has all characters involved cumming twice, with only one or two lines of text between CGs as a break. Even worse than the inherent absurdity of a man cumming and then being hard again five seconds later is that it leads to the scenes coming off as quite predictable. With only a handful of exceptions sex scenes in Full Service consist of two NSFW CGs: a foreplay CG - oral, rimming, or some light kink like bondage or nipple or armpit play - and then an anal CG. There’s a lot of variety in positions and (tame) kink elements on display, but it’s undercut when almost every encounter follows this exact script.

On some subjects Full Service flirts with a particular kind of kink but can’t find it in itself to commit. Tomoki’s romance with his boss Rald is almost an instance of this, although they do end up having one of those (allegedly) scandalous workplace romances with its kink potential left intact. Less fortunate however are the twins Oki and Okan, who Tomoki can romance either individually or together in the aforementioned poly ending. The twincest is indeed hot, but it’s explained in supplementary material (if not necessarily the game itself) that two really aren’t twins or even related which annoys me as the same sort of cop-out as Coming Out on Top’s teacher/student romance. Here it’s a bit more forgivable as the reason Oki and Okan are more or less RPing as twins is tied into the plot.

The...Eh

Full Service’s setting is difficult to pin down. It’s clearly somewhat inspired by Japan and takes place somewhere in the real world as various other ethnicities get referenced throughout, but it’s all rather vague. I honestly can’t even tell if the developer is Japanese or Western, as there’s signs pointing to either.

There’s an annoying mascot character who runs a gacha for gift items - in-game currency only, thankfully - but the script knows how silly he and uses him sparingly in the plot and heart events.

One of the love interests is (so I’ve read) the protagonist of a completely different indie game, recognizable because he looks like a JRPG protagonist and has plot-convenient amnesia. He’s not a bad character by any means, just a big bundle of genre clichés.

With both Chess of Blades and Coming Out on Top I pointed out that best friend romances were a tricky business and tend to end up lighter on conflict. Full Service really yanks the rug out on that one, but it’s impossible to say any more without heavy spoilers. Suffice it to say Tomoki does have a best friend romance, but it’s hidden and hard to obtain and figures into the main plot in a thoroughly unexpected way.

What I said pertaining to second playthrough reveals also brings up another serious issue the game attempts to tackle, this one with more mixed results. It’s sex trafficking, which indeed ties into the larger sex work premise but in my opinion doesn’t land nearly as well as the rest in large part due to it being treated as a mystery and the centerpiece of many a lategame reveal. There are worse ideas for a source of conflict independent of who Tomoki ends up dating, but I’m still not sure about the overall execution.

So in summary? It’s not entirely my genre and there’s a lack of polish in parts, but a lot of gameplay for a dating sim and so, so much porn. Kind of middle of the pack for me.

#Full Service #Gay dating sims

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soulephant · 5 years

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It’s been a while since I last posted about 3H. Then, I implored people not to give shit to Black Eagles players for liking a house. By the way, don’t do that.

Turns out that isn’t the extent of the disrespect and snobbery that is displayed sometimes in regards to Three Houses.

Some people compare Three Houses ridiculously unfavorably to either Radiant Dawn or Conquest(?!?!). And then proceed to be all high-and-mighty and talk people down implicitly if not explicitly. Again, please don’t do that. Anyway, let’s address the comparisons first because I have some choice opinions about that.

(I guess, by the way, I’ll give some spoiler warnings for those who have not played Three Houses yet)

Let’s start with Conquest. It plays really well. That’s more than can be said for the vast majority of pre-awakening games, most of which were marred by awful handling of weight (in what world should specific people be slowed down by Iron Lances?), multiple promotion items, handaxes and such being broken at the expense of bows, and other assorted problems, to a point where I wonder “how is this supposed to ever become more than a cult classic?“. Then again, so does Three Houses.

Conquest pretty much always has some difficulty. Conquest normal is perfect for me, but then, I’ve played several Fire Emblem games at this point. Now I’m not giving Conquest shit for this because it was designed for veterans difficulty-wise. It’s what the game set out to do and Conquest was marketed as such. Ideally though, normal should be normal. It should give the “average“, whatever that may be a challenge, but not be too punishing for exploring whatever the player wants to explore. My inner jury’s still out on whether Three Houses is too easy instead or not. I do not rule that out at present. But too easy is better than too hard, because with too easy, people at least get to play your game and like things about it.

Anyway, I will give Conquest props for gameplay, which I can’t stress enough is quite a good thing.

Characterwise, Conquest is a mixed bag. In part, because some characters had some pretty bad gimmicks (Setsuna would have been maybe okay if she was a general airhead, and didn’t have an absolutely ridiculous focus of falling into traps instead, which is simply not a viable primary trait), though it also has some characters like Niles and Peri, who have backstories and reasons for being the way they are. So far, there isn’t a single stinker in Three Houses, and the cast is shaping up to be stronger in general.

Storywise though... I’m sorry, I can barely begin to reasonably grant Fates fans any points in this regard. I was promised conquest, and what was I given? A conquest that is undesired to the point of Corrin being very whiny pretty much always, when ideally you would expect Corrin to at least toughen up a little (hell, his Nohrian siblings were right there to show him how it’s done!). Other than, what, chapter 16? Where Corrin actually quite masterfully plays Iago, they actively reject character development and keep embracing angst (after Ryoma’s death being the best example). And I get what IntSys/whoever the writer was was going for, because the war isn’t pretty. But it fails to work I find. Also, Conquest throws deaths left and right but... how are most of those supposed to affect the player again? Lillith being the most glaring example. She’s the reason your castle exists, and that’s... about it. Conquest just falls flat storywise (even if bits and pieces could have been okay), and comparing it to Three Houses favorably in that area is something I can already never comprehend.

Now Radiant Dawn. This mostly comes up because Edelgard is compared to Micaiah and people favor Micaiah? But here’s the thing: Radiant Dawn has a prequel (that, on a side note, is a more solid game). That prequel has a cast. That cast benefits from a support system, which Radiant Dawn practically removed. Then Radiant Dawn puts that cast, Ike and co and basically every legitimately good guy, against Daein, which has mostly just lost its mind again. Daein did not deserve the brutal occupation it had during Part 1, but that’s all I can say in Micaiah and the Dawn Brigade’s favor. The key thing is that if you have played Path of Radiance, and notice that Daein is awfully racist and quite unhealthy besides, why would you still willingly side with Micaiah? Why would you not wonder why the game forces you to guide her to victory, instead of teaching Daein a lesson again with a cast that you actually got to explore?

Basically, Micaiah’s enemy is not wrong. Daein may have been yoked by a blood contract, but let’s face it, most of Daein’s army just revels in fighting “sub-humans“ again regardless of why they would actually go to war. To boot, most of Daein’s cast has... little to no character to be found. Even if there was, the player would only have had Part 1′s 10 chapters to get that depth as opposed to the 26 or so that Path of Radiance’s cast had.

The same can’t be said for Edelgard. IntSys made the attempt to treat all houses equally, for starters. All houses are on equal footing. Edelgard’s methods are wrong, and she’s more extreme than most of the Hardin archetype, so please spare me that old news because I know already. But there’s enough things in the game to prove that Edelgard has a point regarding the nobility and crests (just look at some characters’ backstories!). To boot, there’s enough implications that the church has been untruthful for, what, at least a century? And don’t get me started on Rhea because she seems entirely too eager to execute dissenters and erupts the moment she doesn’t like something. Edelgard’s enemy has skeletons in its closet, is implied to be problematic, or at least aren’t the literal heroes of the game. Her enemy is actually potentially wrong!

Two other things in Three Houses’ favor are balance and difficulty. Radiant Dawn’s normal difficulty is... schizophrenic (supposedly localization turned what was hard mode into what we know as normal mode), sometimes too easy, other times outright making me break my no-death rule out of sheer frustration, and further serves to make Part 3′s Daein chapters absolute nightmares because the Dawn Brigade has like no exp pool. Three Houses, again, may turn out to be too easy but I’d take that over whatever Radiant Dawn’s normal mode was. Also as alluded to, a fair few units especially among the new cast just aren’t good. In Three Houses, everyone is usable. Sometimes a few units are broken but at least you can use everyone!

So for short, Three Houses:

The most morally gray or whatever side has a point and their enemy has actual skeletons in their closet.

Normal difficulty is perhaps too easy, but at least the game is accessible. You know, unlike most of the franchise.

Balance is satisfactory. No one is really useless.

Has a proper support system.

Radiant Dawn:

If you played Path of Radiance, why the hell would you still side with Micaiah? Her enemy is not equally wrong. Not even close!

The normal difficulty is schizophrenic because it was in fact supposed to be hard mode. Also because Dawn Brigade has like no exp pool. Still accessible enough, but only just, and pales in comparison to PoR and basically every post-awakening game including Three Houses.

Several new units are as useless as they are underdeveloped.

Has a pathetic excuse for a support system that makes any new addition to the cast a pretty poor character because they have no real opportunity to actually have potential depth explored.

I wish I could change people’s minds but I know there’s always people I disagree with. That’s fine, despite some of my strong word choices. If I end up displaying some hypocritical snobbery of my own in the process of outlining my own thoughts, that’s my mistake and one I will own up to.

What I am not okay with is when people go like “they’re just generous“, “they must be men” or any derogatory variation thereof. Come on man, that’s not being a critic! Being a critic is outlining positives as well as the negatives, and not getting particularly hung up on any of them. It especially isn’t being a snob towards people who don’t see things the same way! They don’t deserve that treatment, much less over video games!

So I hope I have clearly outlined my thoughts here.

#Soul talks #fire emblem #Fire Emblem Three Houses #rant #I guess #long post

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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An Explorer's Guide to the Wonderful World of Visual Novels

Visual novels! Once decried as a “niche” by the masses, they have slowly but surely wormed their way into video games as a whole. Persona became a visual novel, then Fire Emblem. Now Saya no Uta, Gen Urobuchi's disturbing cult “classic” (?!) is available on Steam to stumble upon. There are fewer barriers than ever before to experiencing this varied, historic and often misunderstood medium.

But where to begin? Some visual novels are very long. Others are quite lewd. A number of them (even the ones people love) front-load their most boring material at the beginning, and save the best moments for the last hour of what can be twenty or thirty-hour games. Picking up Saya no Uta without being primed for the extremes of the medium is a recipe for despair. But don't be afraid! Many of the best visual novels being made today are only a few hours long, encompass many approaches and genres, and are acceptable for all ages. In this piece I will lay out a path that you, dear reader, may follow into the thickets. Some things to keep in mind:

1. Every one of the games featured here is legally avaliable in English. If you know Japanese and are willing to spend some money, feel free to experiment on your own!

2. The games featured here range from appropriate for teenagers, to appropriate for mature audiences. Content warnings will be marked as needed. That said, almost none of these games feature the kind of graphic sex you'd see in old-school titles like Fate/Stay Night; the exception is the final title, included for completionism, which is truly sordid and not appropriate for anybody (but I like it).

3. While I've had some experience with the medium, BL and otome games are huge blind spots of mine, so I won't embarrass myself by pretending expertise! If you're interested in exploring those fields, I've heard good things about Code: Realize (get the collector's edition with the extra content!), Hatoful Boyfriend and (if you're OK with some NSFW material) Coming Out on Top.

With that said, let us being our journey!

SHORT AND SWEET:

These games last about two to three hours, but will stick with you longer than that. Don't assume these are “beginner games” simply because they are short! I could argue that collectively, the three titles here are the best on this list.

Butterfly Soup is Brianna Lei's follow-up to her cult success Pom Gets Wi-Fi. It's free! It's also one of the most acclaimed visual novels ever by the mainstream games press, scoring praise from folks like Patricia Hernandez and Steve Gaynor. As for what it's about: it's the story of four girls on their high school softball team, two of them are in love, and there are many funny jokes. I found the ending to be abrupt, but if you're looking for good vibes and some much-needed encouragement to stay true to yourself, I highly recommend this game. Plus it references Matt Mullholland's excellent “My Heart Will Go On” performance, which earns it extra points in my book.

Content warnings: Brief depictions of parental and physical abuse (no visuals!), ableist slurs.

We Know the Devil is “what if Kelly Link wrote Revolutionary Girl Utena?” Plenty of anime and games channel that energy (my beloved What A Beautiful visual novel series among them) but few do so as succinctly and distinctively as Aevee Bee, Mia Schwartz and their team do in this game. The result is a punk, unsettling take on magical girl stories set in a Christian summer camp, featuring sneaky world-building and some striking body horror. You'll feel for the cast and their struggles, and cheer in the True Ending when everything goes completely off the rails.

Content warnings: Psychological and body horror, alienation of queer youth in a religious setting, freaky music.

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EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER is a game about gay antifascist folks fighting fascists across the desert while riding giant robots made of meat. It's the equivalent of a zine you'd pick up at a fair, willing to dive into messy topics most games shy away from and wholly uninterested in sanding away any rough spots. The music is great too! Play this game if you want to beat up Nazis in a giant meat machine called ROOTS AMONG ASH.

Content warnings: Body horror, mentions of self harm and abuse, suicidal ideation, alcohol, gender dysphoria, loss of bodily autonomy, apocalyptic ideation. For mature audiences!

NICE AND MEATY:

These games are a good bit longer, ranging from five to fifteen hours to beat. If you enjoyed the earlier entries and want more, try some of these!

The House in Fata Morgana is a bonafide cult classic, a game made by a small studio that earned itself a legion of die-hard fans in the visual novel space. At first glance it's an entertaining genre pastiche, four tales of doomed love centering around a cursed mansion. But read past the first four chapters, and suddenly the real story comes to the fore—the tale of two ordinary people and a love that lasts for centuries. Fata Morgana takes some huge swings, tackling societal oppression, intersexuality, recovering from past trauma and learning to move on from those who have wronged you without having to forgive them. Its success at landing these swings likely depends on the reader, but I found Fata Morgana's heart to be in the right place. Couple that with one of the best soundtracks in video games, and you have an experience that is worth it even at 0% off.

Content warnings: incest, domestic violence, racist and sexist remarks, psychological manipulation, homophobic and transphobic remarks, sexual assault, child abuse. For mature audiences!

Heart of the Woods is, as of yet, the most ambitious game made by Studio Elan. It's a supernatural mystery where two adult women travel to a small town in the cold and dark to investigate some strange occurrences. What they find leads to unexpected romance, but also incredible danger. Heart of the Woods is sweet, it's funny (Tara is hilarious!) and as has come to be a running theme in this piece, the music is excellent, courtesy of Sarah Mancuso and Kris Flacke. Heart of the Woods is a game made by people who clearly have a lot of affection for visual novels as a medium, but had enough discretion to snip out the bits they weren't fond of. It also comes with a plethora of accessibility options, allowing you to customize everything from the text to the music to your needs.

Content warnings: Parental abuse, alcohol, light horror elements, some sex scenes you can enable with an optional R-18 patch. For mature audiences!

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As for Seabed, it's... yuri ASMR? It's difficult to describe, as the appeal of this one for me isn't so much the story—which is intriguing, but very slow-paced—as it is the feel of it. Everything from the music, to the sound effects, to the text, contributes to a languid feeling unlike every other game in the medium I have played. Seabed won't be for everyone, but few titles match its distinctive atmosphere.

Content warnings: alcohol, partial nudity. At least one sex scene that isn't too explicit by the standards of the medium. For mature audiences!

THE DEEP END:

These games range in length from fifteen hours to fifty... and beyond! If you're looking for the experience your Japanese-speaking friends fell in love with back in the days of fan translations and frantically searching online for information on Type-Moon properties, this is it!

Imagine that you have an idea for a great Japanese TV-drama, but you decide to make it as a visual novel instead. Wanting to produce as authentic an experience as possible, you hire actors and have them act out every scene in your script as you take multiple photographs depicting every twist and turn in the plot. Imagine the sheer amount of time and labor it would require. Then multiply it by five, let the player switch between these narratives with the ease of hitting a button on a gamepad, and tie them together into a vast meta-narrative. That's 428: Shibuya Scramble, one of the most ambitious visual novels ever created and a game that was famously awarded a score of 40 by the Japanese games rag Famitsu. Despite having an enormous and complicated script, it was localized into English just a year ago. Don't miss out on this bizarre and fascinating video game! If you're a fan of the Yakuza series, you'll be right at home with 428's brand of lunacy.

Content warnings: Violence, drugs, alcohol, some bad language.

Umineko: When They Cry is a lot. A gonzo mystery story that starts as a riff on And Then There Were None, it swiftly mutates into a hundred-hour game of four-dimensional chess. It was made by a small team, scored by the music of the gods, and is fully committed throughout to its brand of sentiment, metaphysical rambling and extreme horror. Some might say that Umineko is overwrought, but that is the point: the game is memorable for its excess, not despite of it. If you're looking for a taste of the full VN experience, complete with shocking twists, a weird obsession with trivia and far too many words, this is the most authentic you can find that's appropriate for all audiences. Please play with the original art! It's charming.

Content warnings: Parental abuse, blood and gore, people getting killed and suffering fates worse than death at the hands of witches (???). For mature audiences!

And now we come to [NSFW] Wonderful Everyday, everything your anxious friend told you about visual novels. It's not just that Wonderful Everyday has sex scenes, it's that it takes less time to list what triggering and problematic content is not in the game than what is in it. It references Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Cyrano de Bergerac. The game isn't afraid to take huge, unexpected shifts in tone and aesthetic in order to scare or destabilize the player. You might be wondering: why recommend a game like this, which many would find morally abhorrent? All I can say is that Wonderful Everyday is the game that convinced your Japanese-speaking friends to read Wittgenstein. It's a cult classic, a title unavailable in English for years that came with the highest praise imaginable: that it was a profound work of art, that it would change your way of thinking forever. After finally playing through the game two years ago, my feelings were more mixed; but there's no mistaking that few games better personify the visual novel medium's eccentricities, indulgences or shoot-for-the-moon ambition than this shaggy, gross, but fascinating video game.

Content warnings: suicide, psychological and body horror, multiple variants of sexual assault, extreme bullying, extreme violence, bestiality (thankfully cut down for release in the US!), a transgender character who is handled in a pretty specious way. Many graphic sex scenes. For very mature audiences!

There's even more great titles out there that I couldn't fit on this list! The high stakes and interface-shattering plot twists of 999. The countless games being made in engines like Ren'Py, Choice of Games and Twine. South Korean visual novels like Nameless and Mystic Messenger. No matter what kind of person or reader you may be, there is a visual novel out there somewhere for you. I wish you luck in your endless journey of discovery!

Are you a fan of visual novels? Do you have any (safe for work, if possible) recommendations? Please let us know in the comments!

---

Adam W is a features writer at Crunchyroll. When he isn't eagerly awaiting the announcement of the Girls' Work anime by Type Moon, he sporadically contributes with a loose coalition of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? Follow him on twitter at: @wendeego

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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admiral-migu-blog · 5 years

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Day 2: Lucina's Judgement Remix

The field was silent, with the exception of the grass blowing in the wind, which suited Robin just fine. It let him focus on what was really important, Lucina holding a very sharp sword to his throat. This was pathetic, to think that he, the genius tactician that led Chrom's Shepherds to victory, would die at the hands of one of his closest allies.

Robin had met Lucina over a year ago...

At first he'd written her off as being another one of Chrom's fangirls. However, that all changed when he noticed the mark in her eye. After that he assumed she was a mysterious bastard child. He hadn't expected time-travel.

Lucina literally worming her way into his life had left him with a new perspective. Even still, sometimes he felt like Ichigo Kurosaki, down to the girl living in his closet, Only instead of hunting hollows he was looking for time-travelers and beating up cultists.

"Lucina please, just put the sword down. Let's talk about this..."

"After getting to know you I didn't want to believe it, but in the back of my mind I knew. Robin, you're the man who kills my father!"

"Bullshit!"

"You know it's true!"

"Lucina, I'm not going to kill Chrom!"

"You won't have a choice!" Shit. She had him there.

The Shepherds had gone to rescue Emmeryn and retrieve Sable from Plegia only to learn a chilling truth: Robin's father was the head of the evil Grimleal Cult, he could control Robin like a puppet, and Robin was the Felldragon's current Avatar. They'd been forced to flee with their tails between their legs after he'd manipulated Robin into giving him the Fire Emblem.

Honestly, Chrom's words were the only reason Robin wasn't dead right now. However, that would likely change once his father caught wind of the news.

"I won't lose my father again; we've already lost the Fire Emblem!"

He was tired of this, "Dammit, use your head here idiot! Killing me now accomplishes nothing! In case you forget, Chrom doesn't know you're his daughter from the future! He thinks you're just a fangirl who wants to bed him!"

Lucina flinched as Robin laid the truth bare. She'd was well aware just what her father thought of her. However, she couldn't falter! She had to avoid the bad ending! She'd promised her friends, swore on her parent's graves, she couldn't-!

"What's going on here?!" A booming voice demanded. Robin and Lucina both turned to the owner of said voice in horror, Chrom was glaring at the time-traveler with barely contained fury, and the duo gave him their best dear caught in the headlights impression's.

"Chrom?!"

"W-what are you doing here?!"

"Oh, you know, I was just wandering around and noticed you threatening my best friend!"

Lucina flinched at the venom behind his words and dropped her sword in shock. She tried to speak up, defend herself, anything! However, she was at a loss for words.

Dammit! This wasn't fair.

Thankfully, Robin came to her rescue.

"Relax, we're roleplaying."

"Roleplaying." Chrom asked, clearly not believing him. "In an empty field." He motioned to the field around them, "Alone. After what happened in Plegia? With a knock-off Falchion no less?!"

Robin looked at Lucina, then at Chrom. He looked his best friend straight in the eyes and answered, "Yes."

"Why?!"

"Authenticity?" Lucina chimed in. Robin chocked down a laugh. She'd come so far from the girl with no sense of humor!

"And we felt like everyone could use some cheering up." Robin added.

Chrom still looked skeptical, "So you're planning to put on a play huh, what's it called?"

"Roberella." A new voice chimed in from behind Lucina, who let out a horrified yelp before backing away. What was with everyone sneaking up on her today! Her cry caused the other two to jump and they glared at the newcomer.

"Tharja," Chrom muttered "You're involved with this farce too?"

"It's no farce Capitain. I've been planning it for months."

"Prove it."

"Are you calling me a liar? I'll curse the shit out of you! You'll have blue balls forever! Just think about how poor Olivia will feel, knowing that you'll never be able to give her the son she's always wanted?"

Chrom let out a frustrated sigh and Robin began to feel guilty. He didn't like lying to his friend.

But Lucina was an idiot, so it was a necessary evil. If it wasn't for him she would have dug her own grave months ago. He just hoped she'd hear him out. They could figure this out together. At the very least, he wanted to save Emmeryn.

"I'm sorry for doubting you two. Just, be careful okay? I know everyone's still reeling over the loss of the Fire Emblem but we can't let that ruin what we have!"

"Ah, that reminds me." Tharja spoke up and pulled out a sack. She tossed it to Chrom, who opened it, and he gaped like an idiot at what was inside, "I switched the gems with fakes a few days ago and forgot to tell anyone, sorry."

Chrom starred at Tharja.

Lucina starred at Tharja.

Robin starred at Tharja and asked what everyone was thinking, "Why?"

"I was curious." She answered, as if that answered everything.

Chrom laughed "Well, looks like we haven't completely lost. Good, without all five gems the Fire Emblem won't work. Seems Tharja's quirks saved us, thanks. I'm looking forward to that play you three." Chrom said, patting Tharja on the shoulder much to her annoyance, and laughing as he left the scene.

He'd completely forgotten why he'd come here in the first place.

The trio stood in silence for a good minute, watching him go, before Tharja spoke up.

"It's so nice that you've finally decided to help me with my masterpiece Robin~"

"Wait, you were serious?!"

"R-Roberella, it's real?!"

"Naturally, and now that you used it to ward off the captain I believe you're out of options."

Robin glared at the girl in front of him, "You planned this."

"No, I merely took advantage of the situation. I'll see you two at my room bright and early tomorrow." Tharja was lying through her teeth, truth was she'd known about The Dragon's Table incident for a while now, courtesy of Noire. Tharja would gladly exploit the girls lack of backbone if it meant she could keep Robin safe; besides it wasn't like the future hadn't already been changed. Whether she chose Validar's hope of Robin's Hope was irrelevant at this point. The multiverse was always moving so fate was always changing.

A pity so few of those time-travelers understood that.

Lucina began to cry.

"Hey, none of that. So what if Alter Validar made the Robin from your timeline kill Chrom. We'll figure something out." Robin said, picking up the Parallel Falchion and holding it out for the crying girl. Tharja looked on in disgust. "So get up, wipe those tears of yours and go to bed. We can discuss how we'll deal with this after dealing Tharja's stupid play."

"How rude." Tharja muttered from the side, she felt like the third wheel to the stupidest love story ever told.

Lucina nodded, Robin was right, together they could do the impossible. She'd forgotten that. She just had to believe, believe that by working together the future could be changed!

Meanwhile, at the Second Dragons Table...

Validar had just finished preforming the awakening ritual. However,

Nothing happened.

"I said awaken! Awaken! Awaken! Awaken! Awaken! Awaken!"

Nothing changed.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhh! Robin!"

"Yes?" his super-duper genius school girl daughter asked.

"Not you, be gone whelp!" Validar demanded, pulling out a squirt bottle and spraying his daughter with it. He grabbed the Fire Emblem and threw it at her. She caught it after it bounced off her pigtailed head. The fake gems fell off too, in such a way that, it was a miracle Validar didn't notice the four were fakes earlier.

After all, they were cardboard cutouts.

"This is your fault, fix it!" Validar demanded before walking away fabulously.

Robin watched her father leave. She glanced down at the shield of seals, then at the direction her father had gone, then back at the shield. It only had one gem on it: Sable.

He expected her to retrieve the other four gems from a group of skilled Naga Zealots? Warriors who would happily gut her like a fish? Fighters that included her brother, his weirdo girlfriend, and their creepy stalker? Then bring the completed shield home?

Robin didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The people of Ylisse weren't known for treating those who didn't worship their god with kindness.

"I knew there was a reason I killed him first." A hooded man muttered to himself after watching the scene play out from the shadows.

His sister would fail.

The Shepherds would regain the Fire Emblem, the final gem along with it, and preform the Awakening ritual.

Ylisse would once again pillage Plegia and the cycle would continue.

Grima sighed.

How boring.

A story where the outcome was already known wasn't fun at all. Ah well, in the end he'd never truly loose. His only bane was himself after all.

However, Lucina's face suddenly flashed across his mind. Unlike the majority of her allies that brat hadn't acted in a way he hadn't expected. Allying herself with his weaker self wasn't something he'd seen coming. He'd assume she'd antagonize him, like the rest of her bloodline had ultimately done in his timeline, yet instead they'd pushed him back at every turn.

Grima wondered if, perhaps, there was some worth in this timeline after all.

#robcina-week #robin #lucina #au

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pandoramsbox · 5 years

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Game for Gaming: Lost Sphear

Game: Lost Sphear (Tokyo RPG Factory and Square-Enix; Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows; 2018)

System: Nintendo Switch

Why this game?

Were I to make a list of my all time favorite video games, Square Enix, or as it was previously know Square or Squaresoft, turn based, Japanese role playing games (JRPGs) from the SNES era would factor heavily; namely, “Final Fantasy VI” (or III, in its original US SNES release), “Chrono Trigger,” and “Secret of Mana.” Not surprisingly, when I saw a trailer for the 2017 Switch release of Tokyo RPG Factory and Square-Enix’s homage to this era of gaming, “I Am Setsuna”, I wanted to play it.

Nostalgia definitely clouds my comparison of “I Am Setsuna” to “Chrono Trigger,” the game it most closely resembles in terms of battle and equipment system. Beautiful graphics and music, interesting story and engaging gameplay make “I Am Setsuna” a fine turn based JRPG in the mold of the games that inspired it. "I Am Setsuna” is not one of my favorite games ever, but I enjoyed playing it, would play it again, and do recommend it. As soon as I finished it, or neared finishing it, I wondered if Tokyo RPG Factory was going to come out with a follow up, and as fate would have it they did, and it was about to come out: “Lost Sphear.”

When “Lost Sphear” was released in North American in January of last year though, I didn’t rush out to get it or play it. The reason was two fold: my (still relatively new at the time) job was extremely busy and gaming wise I was completely transfixed by “Fire Emblem Warriors.” “Why spend money on a game I wasn’t going to sit down and play?” I figured. Then come November, and a sale, it made sense to buy it so I had it when I was ready to play it... Then I promptly became obsessed with “Tetris Effect.”

Like many working adults, I have found that finding time to play story heavy games is hard. As a result, I am more apt to favor games that are more action, less talking.

So my first game in this series was a game that I had never given a fair play to, thus I decided to follow it up with a game I wanted to play, but had wound up forgotten in my backlog.

My playtime: approximately 5 hours:

With RPGs, or any games that were cut scene or tutorial heavy, I knew I would need to give the game at least 3 hours. I got into “Lost Sphear” to the point where I gave it closer to 5.

The game opens with a cut scene/plot battle in the ancient past, which turns out to be the reoccurring dream of the protagonist, Kanata. From there, in the grand tradition of most RPGs and fantasy stories, you round up the characters that will make up your starting adventuring party. Sword using Kanata is joined by pugilist Lumina and sniper Locke. The 3 teenage friends are orphans being raised by the village elder, and part of their chores includes defending the town from encroaching monsters and fishing.

After some expository dialogue, getting the sense of the town, and getting a combat tutorial, the party leaves the village on its first mini mission, to go catch a fish. However, when they return, they discover a white void has absorbed and erased their home, along with anyone who was there.

As they attempt to make sense of what happened, they are joined by a mysterious, Goth guy in a long coat whom goes by “Van,” and fights with beam shooting knives. Together they go find shelter for the night at a cabin in the mountains, and while they sleep Kanata has an info dump dream that breaks down the core plot of the game: to recapture what has been “lost” with the power of memories.

Thus the party has to go around and collect memories, which Kanata has the power to manifest into stones/compacted mass/crystals and use to recover the places, people and things that have been lost to the white void.

After saving the village and getting recruited by a representative from the empire to help combat this phenomenon, which is causing havoc throughout the world, Kanata and comrades discover additional nuances to his powers, including the ability to create new things that give boosts in combat.

I played far enough to discover that the game mechanics of collecting ingredients to make food, which also give combat boosts, and magic/special abilities being contingent upon equipping items called spritnite, were carried over from “I Am Setsuna.”

So “Lost Sphear” had a limited learning curve for me, and I was able to spend more time enjoying than mastering new game mechanics. Even if I had not played “I Am Setsuna,” like most games of recent generation, the game is good about succinctly providing tutorials on game mechanics. However, at the point I stopped playing, before writing this post, I had only barely unlocked, thus barely begun to understand, the magical, steam punky vector suits, which are unique to this game.

Conclusions:

Obviously, I like “Lost Sphear,” and will be playing more of it, if I put in more time than what I deemed the minimum requirement to write a post on it. However, as engaged and pleased as I am with it, in the time I played it, I cannot see it overtaking “I Am Setsuna,” or the 1990s SquareSoft SNES games, in my esteem in terms of dialogue, and possibly characters, for me.

The dialogue is simplistic and repetitive. Even keeping in mind that the reading level should be written so as to be accessible to a wide audience, and the fact that it was translated to English from Japanese, the dialogue still comes across as weak relative to other JRPGs I’ve played, including “I Am Setsuna.” It is not simplistically bad in the fun way, like the famous “spoony bard” line from the first English translation of “Final Fantasy IV” (or II, in its original US SNES release). However, the game gives you the option of rewinding or fast forwarding dialogue, which is pretty useful and something that would have been really handy in the preceding games that inspired this one.

Still, slogging through the info dumps on what the game defines as memories and what they do is both tedious and simiotically draining.

In terms of the characters, they’re stock archetypes, and that’s not necessarily bad. Kanata is the pure hearted hero. Lumina is the, at times temperamental, big sister. Locke is the precocious kid who shoots his mouth off, and hates being called out on his inexperience and shortcomings. Van is the blunt expert with a secret. The personality dynamic in the group is good, actually. I am not overly attached to any of the characters though. In fact, I am mostly just offended that the character who is the source of the most repetitive dialogue, and is basically a bratty little kid, shares a name with the romantic thief, I mean “treasure hunter,” from “Final Fantasy VI.”

Really though, the use of archetypical characters in genre and pulp narratives is something I can readily forgive. Sometimes the narrative goes in ways that subvert the archetypes, and sometimes the characters get fleshed out enough to render them into a more unique personality. Only 5 hours of gameplay in, it’s hard to fully assess what may become of the characters in “Lost Sphear.”

In terms of more positive aspects of “Lost Sphear,” it did improve on “I Am Setsuna” in terms of game mechanics. Unlike its spiritual predecessor, inns are available to heal the party. This standard of JRPGs was absent from “I Am Setsuna” and it was extremely inconvenient. Money is no longer as hard or convoluted to come by in “Lost Sphear,” which likely goes hand in hand with inns being part of the game.

In combat, since the combatants move around the battlefield, it is possible to hit more than one party member or monster. In “I Am Setsuna” this mechanic was incidental and could be optimized for maximum impact with practice. In “Lost Sphear,” they introduce the mechanic early on, and let the player see what monsters are being targeted.

This multiple target mechanic warms my tactical and strategy loving heart! And kudos for the listing the button functions at the bottom of the screen; you can either ignore them, or refer to them if you need a refresher.

While the active combat style requires full attention while playing (as it should), I found exploring the different locations and world map peaceful and relaxing. The color palate is warm and the score perfectly accents the scenes. I genuinely like this gaming environment.

For fans of SquareSoft JRPGs from the 1990s, Tokyo RPG Factory games will appeal to your genre sensibilities. It soothes and panders rather than challenges, but sometimes that is exactly the kind of media you want and need, and that’s okay. Frankly, I think it’s cool that the styles and aesthetics of these games can be retranslated with new technology to reach new audiences, while attracting longtime or lapsed fans. It’s something mainstream Hollywood cinema has done for decades, and enables more texts for genre and narrative studies. Plus, you know, it’s just fun.

#game for gaming #video games #videogames #lost sphear

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thesummonerofaskr · 6 years

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Salt 3: Fire Emblem Fates, the Story

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I decided to go ahead and make this since I am currently sick, agitated, and ready to rant about something. I've poked fun at Fates' narrative or outright insulted it before, but I've never said anything about why it's bad. Why is that? Well that would probably be because most Fire Emblem fans are expected to hate Fates' story at this point and so saying that you hate it is just a given. But you know what? I can do better then that. I've done it twice already, so why not? Now to be fair, I will admit I'm a bit spoiled. My first Fire Emblem game was Path of Radiance, a Fire Emblem game considered to have one of the best stories in the series this side of Genealogy of the Holy War. So when I went in and played Awakening, with its fun-yet-busted gameplay and yet still flawed narrative, I was slightly disappointed. I still love Awakening and how it helped save the series, but I'm not above saying it could've been better. Still, when Fates, or rather "if," was announced, I couldn't help but fall in love with the premise. Two families, two different storylines, and a choice to make on which side you would follow? The ability to customize your own personal fortress? It sounded like a dream come true. But then the game to the States and... it crushed sales. You know why Fates gets all the seasonal units in Heroes alongside Awakening? It's because those games sold well, so of course they're going to get more attention whether we like it or not. However, Fates did disappoint... a lot... with the execution of its narrative. I feel like we all convinced ourselves that this was going to be the best game ever only to get something sub-par, which to the hyped up fan can end up being the worst thing ever. Where did Fates fail and how can it be improved? Well that's what I'd like to explore.

Prologue: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It

Fates may not have been the best game in the world, but it certainly wasn't the worst. If you ask some people in the fandom about Fates, they'll get onto their high horse and tell you that everything about Fates was horrible, there wasn't a single redeeming factor, and it single-handedly ruined the entire franchise to such a degree that it took Echoes being made to save it. (And if I ever get around to beating Echoes, I'm sure I could make a rant on how little fun I've been having with it, to the point where I can't beat it.) Those people are... exaggerating. So before we jump into the negativity, I'll offer some positives. For starters, much as with Awakening, I found myself getting attached to a good majority of the characters. Sure there were exceptions (Niles and Hayato), but there always are and that doesn't necessarily make the characters bad for the purpose they were created. Secondly, the village customization was everything I hoped it would be. Yes, I did enjoy playing around with the My Castle feature. I've always been a bit of a world builder, driving my interest in RTS games like Age of Empires and the original Warcraft, and even a small little thing like this got me thinking on how to make my castle pretty. Gameplay mechanics introduced in Awakening were fixed. Pair Up mechanics were no longer broken and allowed you to be more strategic regarding both offensive and defensive measure. Archers and Knights were made not only useful, but amazing, and so characters you wouldn't have used in other games suddenly becomes amazing in this one. Personal skills now exist and even a few of those aforementioned people will turn around and say they would bring personal skills back for future installments. The music... why would people even hate the soundtrack? It was absolutely beautiful. As a sucker for both Japanese and Celtic music, I can certainly say there was not a track in this game that I despised. And I know that some people like how battles get their own music in other games before Awakening, but I've never been fond of that. It feels like I don't get to hear enough of the music in game before it switches over to Battle and back, again and again, until the Enemy Phase... Thanks Echoes. Also, dagger weapons... I hope those return next game to be honest. I don't expect there to be a duality like in Fates, but I do hope there's at least some manner of throwing debuff weapon.

Perhaps this wasn't the most eloquently written paragraph in the history of the world, but I did want to at least start off on a high note... now let's delve into the topic at hand, shall we?

Chapter 1: Pre-Determined Destiny

One of the first issues with Fire Emblem Fates was how it was advertised versus how it was shipped. One of the things we saw leading up to the game's release was how there was going to be a choice between which side you wanted to affiliate with. Would you stand with your blood family, the Kingdom or Hoshido, or the family that raised you, the Kingdom of Nohr? It was a question that actually got a lot of people both excited and competetive, a light battle that I'd only seen in the Warcraft fandom, though not nearly as tense and hostile as Alliance vs. Horde to be fair. But then tragedy immediately struck when it was revealed that to make your choice, you had to purchase the right game for it, split between Birthright and Conquest. That's one hell of a way to make this seeming question lose its meaning. The first five chapters are spent introducing you to both Nohr and Hoshido and by Chapter 6 you're supposed to make your decision based on what you know and how you feel, but that will only work if you had purchased the Special Edition of Fates or, more realistically, if you'd ended up paying the extra $20 to put the other side on your 3DS digitally. Otherwise you'll end up with a 50% chance on whether you now want to side with the kingdom you bought ther version for still or if you'll end up like "wait no I actually want to side with the others," but you can't because this is the version of the game you paid for, kiddo.

It stank of greed to a lot of people and there were even comparisons made to Pokemon as a result. Now to be fair, these comparisons are still completely incorrect. Birthright and Conquest, and the third story released later in Revelations, do in fact tell different stories. There's more major differences in the narrative then which units you get. But it overall came up to $80 in total. Couldn't you have just put Birthright and Conquest on the same cartridge and then made Revelations cost $40 on its own then? Well no, that still would've pissed people off and for good reason. I feel bad for cartridge owners who wanted the game. I heard there was a way to get both on cartridge for $60, but I bought all my Fates content digitally, so I cannot confirm. There's no real way to improve this because it was on Nintendo's marketing for giving the illusion that the choice came in game, not immediately based on version.

Chapter 2: The Avatar of Salt

Honestly self-insert characters are the worst. In a game like The Legend of Zelda, it works because the story takes a backseat to gameplay and Link doesn't need to be anything more then the silent hero who will save the day and bring peace to Hyrule no matter what the challenges are that come to test him. Fire Emblem doesn't get that luxury. Being a tactical RPG that weaves both story and gameplay together as important as the other, it needs characters that can serve to further the narrative while still being interesting and enjoyable. None should be more so then the main character of the game, especially if they're a major talker in the story. RPGs like Suikoden and Persona can get away with not having the main character say much because the focus goes into secondary characters more so then the primary one and so you can enjoy them more extensively, watching them interact amongst each other as well, but Fire Emblem doesn't often bring secondary characters into the main narrative and usually reserves their development and storyline importance for supports to look into. Awakening and Fates are especially guilty of this, with the former utilizing mainly Chrom, the Avatar, Frederick, and Lissa over anyone else. In Fates, it would be the Avatar, Azura, and the royals. So it is important that these characters at least be able to carry the story well enough and... they don't always. But Awakening gets some leeway in that its self insert Robin, while plot integral enough to be a flaw on Awakening's story, is not the main character. That would actually be Chrom. Fates' Avatar, Corrin, serves as both the self insert... and the main character. It goes about as well as you expect.

Many consider Corrin to be the worst lord in the series, more so then even Roy, Eliwood, and Gaiden!Alm before Echoes turned him into a good boy. A lot of this is because of how static Corrin is. In the first five chapters, Corrin is given some leeway because they are still sheltered and naive. They were raised by the Nohrian royals, who are not complete monsters like their father, and so of course they would be horrified at the thought of executing prisoners for fun. After being kidnapped by Hoshido and shown around, they would of course expect to die, be confused by their circumstances, and only after a horrific traumatic effect bringing back their memories ends up disturbed by what happened to them. These five chapters were better storywise then the rest of the game by far because after choosing their side and going through an admittedly heartfelt battle... they seem to just settle in and end up a static character. Whether it's the justified avenger in Birthright or the suffering deceiver in Conquest, they never really show any change in their character. There's no major development for them as they have to stay in a certain role that is easy to insert themself into, even though in some cases they also fail in this.

Revelations is the worst in this regard. Corrin keeps their naivete to the very end. This gets them into a lot of trouble with a certain character who ends up betraying the group, yet this behavior is never called out on. In fact, their overtrusting nature is commended and encouraged, which I suppose is natural considering the fact that they were manipulated by both Hoshido and Nohr in their own right. Obviously Nohr was manipulating Corrin into believe they were of Nohrian decent, but Hoshido, or rather... only Ryoma, never bothered to let Corrin know the truth that they were adopted. I suppose they would want Corrin to remain the same way. It gives them further leeway over Corrin in the future.

I know there are people who like Corrin the way they are, especially the female Corrin, though how much of that is between her looks and the fact that one out of all six voices has the best performance in Chapter 5's cutscene and it's her default voice I don't know, but if I had to change the story without removing Corrin in order to preserve the original premise of choosing one of your two families, I would definitely have Corrin "mature" throughout each path in a different way. In Birthright, I would have them start off as bitter towards Garon for what happened to Mikoto, but still not hating Nohr and so being angry at characters like Hinoka, Takumi, and Oboro for their constant racist tendencies. As they progress, however, they see what Nohr has done to their people and so they feel that Nohr would be much more prosperous under Hoshidan rule. On the other side, Conquest's Corrin would still want to change Nohr from the inside and that would be the ultimate goal regardless, but going into Hoshido, they would notice all of these goods, all this food and luxury, that Hoshido's been hoarding to itself. They might think conquering Hoshido would be good for Nohr in more ways then one and so feel less sympathetic when going through the battles. Revelations' Corrin is such an enigma that I feel like the game would need to be drawn out longer to justify everything that happened in it. Corrin gets both families working together half way in, so I guess they would feel that being the same would work out. I guess you can't win them all.

Chapter 3: Black and White, for what is Gray and Grey?

Whenever you play a Fire Emblem game, you usually see multiple perspectives. The enemy's side has good people in it and so you might be inclined to sympathize with them to a degree while the good guys still have to deal with issues of internal corruption and strife. Tellius did a good job with this as there were people within Daein who could not stand Ashnard's rule despite being forced to follow him, such as Jill's father, while Begnion had its internal corruption in spades between the massive racism against Laguz that allowed slave trafficking to progress as far as it did, especially in the hands of senators like Oliver. Radiant Dawn furthered this by having Daein in such a state of suffering to Begnion after the war in the first game that our heroine Micaiah is leading a revolution within. Even Awakening did this to a small degree in its first third with the character Mustafa, a Plegian general who had been touched by Emmeryn's words after her death, offered to shelter Chrom and the Ylisseans if they surrendered, and who allowed his men to leave if they so desired because of how hard they found it to fight with the knowledge of what they'd done, though none of them ended up leaving after his compassion and so chose to fight and die for him.

You'd think with Fates' premise, it would be the perfect Gray on Grey story, with both Hoshido and Nohr having its goods and bads. Unfortunately that is not the case. In many aspects, it looks incredibly like Hoshido did nothing wrong and does nothing wrong ever while Nohr is essentially Nazi Germany. Hoshido wanted to stay out of a war. They even have a barrier around the country that makes enemy soldiers lose the will to fight, keeping everything seemingly peaceful. What a bloody MacGuffin that barrier is, but hey, the Nohrians found a way to combat it by calling upon the Faceless, soulless creatures that can rampage villages even in the barriers, though they are so monstrous they can even kill the mages that summoned them if not properly controlled. I wonder who the baddies are in this situation.

For starters, Hoshdio's food hoarding needs to be addressed by the Nohrian royals as a reason for Nohr to invade. Nohr's conditions as a practically barren wasteland where food cannot easily grow also needs to be brought up. Hoshido also needs an equivalent to Hans and Iago. Some might point out Kotaro, but he is not actually a part of Hoshido and so does not count. Even if they cannot be as bad as the aforementioned two, they need to be a driving force of antagonism that can make Hoshido at least look less then perfect. Perhaps their racism against Nohrians can make Oboro look like an equal opportunist. Or maybe they act nice on the outside, but are secretly plotting to usurp Mikoto and take the throne for themselves. Speaking of which...

Chapter 4: The Father, the Mother, and the Holy Spirit

What are the similarities between Mikoto and Garon? You might say that there is no simlarity, that both could not be more different in any single manner. But after Chapter 5 and in Revelations, there are two simlarities between the two. They also share these simlarities with Sumeragi. Both are dead and possessed by Anankos. This causes Mikoto be removed from the story and it is the reason why Garon is an old tyrannical cunt more one-dimensional then the inability to conceive the horizontal and vertical. These characters are nothing more then wasted potential. The former gives Corrin their memories of Hoshido back with her death and the latter is a walking giant with a sign pointing at him in neon letters saying "I'm basically Ivan the Terrible in Fire Emblem!" Certainly there must be ways to make better use of them, yes?

The first step is avoiding that anime urge to kill off Mikoto. That's right... don't have her die. Instead, let her remain the driving force for Hoshido as she is injured so much she cannot keep the barrier up, but otherwise remains alive. You might argue that this wouldn't be fair to Nohr as Garon is already the way he is and that it goes against the pre-determined ending of both Ryoma and Xander being made the kings of each country respectively, but it would also allow us to build up Mikoto more then just this "perfect messiah" figure in a similar vein to Emmeryn and maybe even make her more memorable as a character. Now in Revelations, she might get killed and brought back just because it is what it is in that damn story, but in Birthright, there's a chance for her to grow as a leader when she learns of how Nohr has been suffering and so does not hesitate in offering diplomacy when Leo is instated as King. In Conquest, we could see her being the driving force for Ryoma to be as uncharacteristically desperate to get Corrin back as he turns out to be, encouraging him to do whatever it takes, even if it means forsaking his honor. Sounds rather ruthless, I know, but hell hath no fury like a mother scorned after all.

But what about Garon? Well Garon's issue is that he has no traits outside of being evil. What he used to be like is all told in supports. And we all know that "show, don't tell" is the golden rule of writing, so why is Garon nothing but evil when an Anankos possessed Mikoto is able to act kind and loving? My proposal is that Garon is shown to have a more loving side. For instance, what if he actually expressed happiness that Azura was brought back as opposed to... brushing her off? It would be heavily out of character to how we know him now, but it would definitely fit the descriptions of him as a loving father we've been told by Xander, Camilla, and Leo. It would also make putting him down all the more sad in Conquest when we're revealed to his true form, building onto the whole "tragedy" feel that it's supposed to have all the way through as opposed to this cathartic break until possessed Takumi. "But then why would he be evil? Why would he want to conquer Hoshido?" If diplomacy failed and Garon was pushed to that point in life, he might've kept his new perspective on conquering in death. He has men like Hans and Iago around to give him the results he needs and they could be seen as the ones manipulating him into doing evil, except Corrin and Azura know the truth thanks to that crystal ball. All I'm saying is that making Garon less of a twat would give Nohr that push it needs to be more reasonable a pick. As opposed to picking it because your brothers are hot... oh, and about that...

Chapter 5: Genealogy of the Holy Fate

And now the Jugdral fans will tear me apart for that joke. Time to jump into the triggering topic of incest. Now I'm going to go ahead and make this section mercifully short, even if it still requires a trigger warning, but what I am going to say is that these supports were an utter mistake. For starters, on Hoshido's side, you initially believe you're blood related to them. Why is Mikoto writing letters to everyone but Ryoma on the off chance that they fall in love with their middle sibling? What kind of mother does that? That's just stupid. And even though Ryoma knows the truth, he should still see Corrin as a sister regardless. They're in-laws. Are you kidding me? On the Nohrian side of things, they may not have ever been blood related, but Corrin was raised there for so long that them developing any feelings for the Nohrian siblings is even closer to developing feelings for an actual brother and sister then it would be for Hoshido's side.

It's amazing that the actual incestuous couple is more understandable then the pseudo-ones. Corrin and Azura together were a very popular pair when they were first revealed in the same vein of Chrom and Robin being a popular pair. Two main characters, very close together, it all ends up working out in that manner. The problem is that Revelations drops in one line something that isn't stated in any support conversations, world building lines, or any part of the story apart from that one line, that one sentence of dialogue from a dying Mikoto that killed an entire ship. "Azura's mother and I are sisters." Corrin and Azura barely knew each other as they were raised in entirely different kingdoms. They were perfect strangers until Mikoto stated this. Now they're first cousins and so the once beloved ship is so problematic that your previous posts praising it are probably getting you anon hate even now unless you delete them.

The solution to this is obvious. Remove the ability to S-Rank them. Add in a few more characters if you need to, but no more Azzurrin, Corriander, Corryoma, Camillin, Hinokin, Takurrin, Correo, Sakurrin, and Corrlise... no more weird ship names in general to be honest.

Chapter 6: We Must Go Deeper

I love the children units of Genealogy and Awakening. I feel they bring in some neat personalities in the latter's case and in the former's case continue the story in a way that was never done before. However, Fates' case is... horrible. Just simply horrible. In an attempt to recapture some of the glory from Awakening's use of the children, without understanding why it worked in Awakening the way it did, the children units in Fates are literally child soldiers aged up to a proper age in Fates' equivalent of Hyperbolic Time Chambers. Sure they weren't intended to be, either in-universe or from the perspective of the writers, but that's sure what they look like when their presence is entirely optional, has no bearing on the stories whatsoever, and their existence is justified with one of the worst concepts I ever seen... the Deeprealms.

The Deeprealms as a construct are disgusting and unncessary. Their existence and the unit's use of them is actually harmful to the likeability of every single character in the game. They essentially place their own children in these pocket dimensions to be raised away from the horrors of their war without considering the ramifications of doing such a thing. It worked in Genealogy because they had no parallel dimensions to store their children in, having them sent to other lands away from where the fighting would be and them only growing after years of development proper. It worked in Awakening because the kids came from the future and so had already been through a world without their parents because of how Awakening's story functions. In Fates, however, they tried to combine the two and what we get are children who grow up with abandonment issues because that's essentially what their parents did. They abandoned the kids in worlds that have time streams that run slower then "the real world's" and caused them to age exponentially quicker from their perspective as a result. From this, we get Rhajat being older then her own father, Velouria being expected to break away from her parents despite barely getting to spend time with them and becoming obsessive to the point of... see the above chapter, Percy hating his father and considering him a villain, Asugi wanting to escape his identity as the next Saizo, and various other examples. Sure some of the kids continue to love their families like Midori, Soleil, Ophelia, Caeldori, and Selkie, but you'd still have to question if said families deserve it.

As much as we make like these characters, it would overall be better if they did not exist at all. It would cease being a stain on the first gen characters. If they had to exist, there could be DLC for them as opposed to them being in the base game.

Chapter 7: The Vallite Expedition

Valla's story is the worst story of the three. Conquest can still be enjoyable. Birthright is cliche, but simple. Revelations, however, is a story that utterly suffers from its incompetence. The characters are all swift to join Corrin's side due to the "chapter limit" that the games consistently hold themselves to, the Hoshidan and Nohrian conflict is explained to be the machinations of a bigger threat to life itself, and everything that we know from the previous two games no longer manages to be an issue because now there's something bigger we can blame. Revelations is to Fates what the end of Mists of Pandaria was to Warcraft and Anankos is essentially this game's Garrosh Hellscream. Why even worry about moral relativity, economic issues, and the bonds of family when it was all a dragon's fault?

Valla boasts bad writing from beginning to end and culminates in an asspull of epic proportions. It's true you see Anankos name dropped in Conquest, as well as get to see Valla proper, but neither of these needed to really be in the game. Anankos didn't need to be a thing. And if he did, then he needed more development or needed to be mentioned by Garon more. After all, Anankos is a very important character. He's Corrin's father for fuck's sake. Sadly Valla couldn't get any world building at all though because of a coincidental curse that kills anyone who name drops it. Really makes building it up into a proper threat difficult, doesn't it? It's a world you can't talk about unless you go there. So when you go there, you have no idea what to make of it because you've never heard about it before. And then you can't tell your friends or family about it because it'll kill you if you do, which means Corrin has to convince a bunch of people to jump into a bottomless canyon without name dropping it, except they're totally prepared to name drop it and die... only for said people to say they'll trust Corrin entirely.

Between that, Corrin being encouraged to remain trusting to the point of insanity, Anthony existing, the sentence that made a popular ship incestuous... I'm not sure there's even a way to save Valla. It pisses all over the premise that got people excited for Fates to begin with, that these two families who have good reasons for going to war want you to join only one of them to fight the other. Why do that when you can have both and fight against a big evil dragon?

ENDGAME: The Path is filled with Legos

I am by no means a professional writer. I've considered multiple ways to salvage Fire Emblem Fates' story. I've seen people say there is no way to salvage it and that it should burn. I've seen people state the only way to save it is to remove Corrin from it and make it more like Radiant Dawn with the two kingdoms being playable and having their own tales. I've seen people state the game is fine as it is already and that not too many changes need to made except removing the Deeprealms. I've seen people not mess with the story and only mention how much they hate the weapons now that they're unbreakable thanks to the stat issues on them. Fates is a game with many opinions on it because of how controversial it is. I suppose one could argue that this is a good thing. Fates will always have people talking about it. Even if it's mostly critique and anger, it's still publicity that'll get people looking at it. And if they find that they do in fact like what they see, that's another Fates fan added to the pool, which is not a bad thing.

For better or worse, Awakening saved the franchise and Fates made it popular. You can argue that this sucks because the S-Support and children somehow "makes it a dating sim." I take it as another chance, a potential to see more stories utilizing the Fire Emblem formula, and it's not like this salvation turned out to be for the worst. We got Heroes, which is currently going through some turbulent times and yet is still one of the best gacha games made. We got Warriors, which may be surrounded by controversy concerning its roster and yet is still a fun experience. We got Echoes, which I may not have personally enjoyed, but I've seen a lot of people happy for it and stating it has one of the best stories in the franchise. And we have Fire Emblem 16 coming out for the Switch at some point.

Fates' story is... problematic. It's very irritating as you expected a manga writer to do better then what he did. But I suppose if it didn't exist at all, things would've been for the worst. So I still love Fates. I still respect what it did for the series. Just... not enough to not make this post.

#ooc #michele rants #fire emblem fates #incest trigger #because one of the parts brings that up #this was longer then expected

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mycatisstillloafingonme · 6 years

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So, a possible wave 2 of DLC for Fire Emblem Warriors. Also some ranting.

I’m not saying there is going to be a wave 2 of dlc but since a lot of people seem to think there will the chances are pretty good. If there isn’t, KT is going to be dealing with a fuckton of pissed off fans. Also, there is some things I need to get off my chest so I put it under the cut with my speculations. You’ll know when I start ranting when you see it, hahaha.

I believe in a potential wave 2 the devs will do Awakening, Shadow Dragon, and Echoes. The only things I see them doing for Fates are costumes and maps (if that) because Fates has too many characters. With that in mind, here is who I would like to see in the hypothetical Awakening pack (I haven’t played either SD or SOV and probs never will, unfortunately):

Inigo and Severa-their moms are or will be in the game. I don’t think IS would let KT get away with not adding them-especially Inigo, because he’s more popular than his mom much like Owain. Any concerns the devs might have about putting these two in can easily be addressed:

Too many swords? Use alternate weapons. Give one of them an axe and let them go to town with it. They did it with Lissa, Frederick, and the little Fates sisters so I don’t think the dev would shy away from doing it again.

KT didn’t want to add second gen units? Too fucking bad: Lucina and Owain are there as well as Cordelia and Olivia, so they’ve got nothing to lose by adding these two.

“Oh, the devs aren’t gonna add these two because they’re saving the mercenary moveset for Ike in the sequel”: What. The. Fuck. Believe it or not, I’ve seen posts on forums that say something similar to this (not many, thankfully; usually at least one person disagrees with them). I don’t know what logic this follows, but it is completely absurd to me. Why, in the ever loving FUCK, would they do that?! And “they’ve done it before” isn’t a valid argument. In fact, that same statement was used to argue that the NPC squad would be free DLC but look at what happened. I doubt the devs would even CONSIDER that as a reason for not adding a mercenary like Inigo and Severa. While there is a possibility that they are saving the mercenary moveset for a sequel, I doubt they would save it for one fucking character, no matter how popular he is. The only class I do see being saved for a sequel would be the beast units because the laguz did have a big part in the Tellius games from what I’ve heard. And when the wave 1 Awakening pack releases (and the leak is to be believed) I have a feeling that a lot of Awakening/Fates fans will be requesting Inigo and Severa to be playable. In fact, there has been a fair amount of people doing just that already. Please note I mean no disrespect to the poster. I just honestly don’t understand their logic.

moving on...

I don’t know who would be in the third slot. Maybe Gaius because the other Summer Scramble Squad members (Chrom, Cordelia, Tharja) are there. I don’t give two shits about him though; I’d rather see Henry.

#Fire Emblem: Warriors

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gamersonthego · 6 years

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Chase Koeneke’s Top 10 Handheld Games of 2017

2017 represented a big shot in the arm for handheld gaming. As the Vita clings desperately to life support, Nintendo has graced us with the Switch, and with it, a bevy of AAA titles not normally seen in the handheld space. Maybe it’s not fair to pit Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey against something like Iron Marines, but hey, this is the shot across the bow. It’s time to step up your handheld game in 2018.

Honorable Mentions: The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, Puyo Puyo Tetris

Personally, I never feel good about double dipping on a game come GOTY list time. I love The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth on the Vita, and Afterbirth+ is even better on the Switch, but it’s pretty much the same game. The same can be said about Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Dragon Quest VIII is excellent, but it’s a straight port of a 13-year-old game, and even if it’s one I experienced for the first time in 2017, I can’t in good conscience count it here on this list (though watch me do just that for my #3 game this year). And while Puyo Puyo Tetris got its stateside release this year, I’ve been plugging away at my imported Vita copy for the better part of two years. It’s an essential Switch title, but I didn’t play the game much in 2017 and to put it in a list of my favorite games this year doesn’t really make sense.

Dishonorable Mention: Fire Emblem Heroes

I think I played more Fire Emblem Heroes than any other game this year. I know I spent more money on it than any other game this year (and probably more than any other game ever). And while I really enjoyed my time with it, its money-sucking greediness became too much for me to bear. I had to quit the game cold turkey and delete it from all my devices. It’s a truly special game, completely marred by bad business tactics, and that is heartbreaking. And while it has been disqualified from this list, its impact deserves some sort of recognition, even if that’s in the form of a warning..

And with that out of the way, let’s get to the top 10!

10. Monument Valley 2 (Mobile)

While it didn’t quite grip me as hard as the first game, Monument Valley 2 still manages to put together stunning visuals with simple, but effective puzzling. And man, it’s really fun to make those kaleidoscope/snowflake things. Make sure you listen to the GOTG episode about the series with Bobby Pease too.

9. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (Switch)

I laughed right along with the rest of you when the images for this leaked out online before E3. This seemed like a bad idea from the start, and I didn’t much trust Ubisoft to execute the idea. But Kingdom Battle is a surprisingly strong strategy game. With simplification where you want it and depth where you need it, there’s a lot to like about the way this game plays. Forcing you to keep a Rabbid in your party at all times and less than interesting puzzles outside of combat keep this from greatness, but this a great foundation to build upon.

8. Iron Marines (Mobile)

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Kingdom Rush and its developer Ironhide Games. And I’ve been waiting for Iron Marines to release for years after playing a demo at PAX East in 2015. Now that it’s here, I can say that yeah, it was worth the wait. It’s the best RTS game on mobile and builds on Ironhide’s strong tower defense roots. And if you need to hear more, I spoke with two of the developers earlier this year for GOTG.

7. SteamWorld Dig 2 (Switch/Vita)

I’ll be honest, I had misgivings about SteamWorld Dig 2. I loved the first game for its condensed experience. Hearing that the sequel was going to be much bigger worried me. Was Image & Form about to bite off more than they could chew? Thankfully, my worries were completely unfounded. SteamWorld Dig 2 is fantastic. A solid platformer through and through that lives up to the SteamWorld name. Now we just need a SteamWorld Heist 2 on Switch.

6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)

I am notorious for my inability to get through Zelda games, and Breath of the Wild is no different. But even in my relatively short time with the new game, I’ve come to realize how special this series really is. There’s a transcendent quality to exploring Hyrule, taking in this massive world that feels so natural and yet is so densely and elegantly packed with life and mystery. I don’t like the weapon degradation and I think the combat is a little too simplistic, but those are small gripes when you consider how this game makes you feel on a moment-to-moment basis. It’s not my favorite Zelda game, but it is the best Zelda game. Maybe one day I’ll finish it.

5. Golf Story (Switch)

I. Love. Mario. Golf. Specifically, I love Mario Golf for the Game Boy Color, which smartly combined RPG mechanics and a thin, but enjoyable story into a golf game. Since the GBC release, Mario Golf has become increasingly generic, dumbing down the RPG mechanics and losing what made it special. Golf Story is the second coming of Mario Golf GBC. The writing is top notch, it brings back the RPG mechanics I’ve been missing and dammit, the golfing is pretty good too. For Sidebar Games’ first release to be so strong out of the gate, I’m just so impressed. Now let’s tackle a baseball RPG please.

4. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)

Nintendo really knocked it out of the park this year. First they launch the Switch with the best Zelda game ever and then they follow it up with one of the best Mario games ever. Super Mario Odyssey manages to be a love letter to both 2D and 3D Mario games of old while simultaneously raising the bar of what a Mario game can be. Everything is just so inventive and imaginative. The simple act of moving Mario around the different kingdoms is sublime giving you the freedom to do some spectacular platforming if you dedicate yourself to mastering the controls. And some of the later kingdoms are too good to spoil here. You really need to experience them for yourself.

3. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (3DS)

Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates were my favorite games of their respective years of release and I expected Echoes to be in a similar conversation this year. And it absolutely lived up to those lofty expectations, but not in the way I initially thought. Echoes is way more than a remake of an NES game. It deftly weaves in the story, themes and mechanics of that game into a modern video game, managing to feel faithful to its source material while never being tied down by it. Whereas Awakening and Fates are built from a rich history of mechanics from past Fire Emblem games, Echoes is almost experimental by comparison. Not all of those experiments pay off, but enough of them do that I truly hope the next new Fire Emblem game takes some notes from Echoes (and I hope more Fire Emblem remakes of games that never made it stateside appear in the future. May I suggest The Binding Blade so we can all see what our Smash Bros. friend Roy was up to?)

2. Sonic Mania (Switch)

While I’m a Nintendo kid through and through, I’ve always preferred Sonic to Mario when it mattered. Sonic 2 beats Super Mario World any day. But Sega has continually missed the mark on giving fans the good 2D Sonic follow up we’ve been craving…until now. With the help of Sonic’s most hardcore fans, Sonic Mania is the perfect sprint down memory lane. Remixes of old stages and music, brand new ideas that would feel right at home on the Genesis and some incredible references and callbacks to even the most obscure Sonic games and lore, Mania just nails the Sonic experience from top to bottom. My only complaint is those damn blue sphere bonus stages plucked straight from Sonic 3. Those were terrible then and they’re terrible now.

1. Monster Hunter Stories (3DS)

This one was a surprise to me. I’m not a Monster Hunter fan. I just can’t get into them. But a traditional JRPG using Monster Hunter’s cool creature, armor and weapon designs intrigued me enough to give the demo of Stories a try. Over 100 hours later, and I think it’s fair to say the game hooked me. The combat is the star here. While you fully control your character, your monster partner has a mind of its own. Only by gaining kinship during battle can you call out specific attacks for your monster to do. Whether you or your monster are calling the shots, the action takes place in a rock, paper, scissors style battle, but unlike Pokemon’s type advantages, each monster has certain tendencies, and picking the right move can cause additional damage to the enemy while taking minimal damage in return. But sometimes monsters go against their tendencies, making each fight a unique chess match that stays engaging throughout the experience. Like Dragon Ball Fusions last year, this game came out of nowhere and blew me away. As developers continue to embrace the Switch, this may be one of the last great RPGs for the 3DS.

#goty #gotggoty2017 #chase koeneke #fire emblem heroes #monument valley 2 #mario + rabbids kingdom battle #iron marines #steamworld dig 2 #the legend of zelda: breath of the wild #golf story #super mario odyssey #fire emblem echos: shadows of valentia #sonic mania #monster hunter stories

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sage-nebula · 5 years

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HOO boy, major Fire Emblem: Three Houses spoilers (at least for the Black Eagles route) ahead. If you haven’t played past chapter eleven of part one, you don’t want to read anything beneath the cut.

But if you have, OH BOY.

So, as is obvious by what I typed above, I’m playing the Black Eagles route. And oh boy. I’d heard rumblings of Edelgard being a “traitor” (and other unfavorable words) around the internet, but I tried to avoid the spoilers as much as I could, especially because I wanted to marry her at the first opportunity and thus did not want to hear a word against my beautiful future wife. Nevertheless, it became apparent to me a decent amount of time before the reveal that Edelgard was the Flame Emperor, and thus was the one who was working with Solon and Kronya (“Monica”) and therefore in league with the ones who murdered my (well, Byleth’s, but still) father. This, even more than Edelgard telling Dorothea that there was nothing resembling romance in her life despite the fact that I spent seven straight months showering her in flowers (WHICH SHE KEPT IN HER ROOM!), taking her on tea dates, and eating almost every meal with her, put a strain on our potential relationship. I was angry with her. To be honest, I’m still kind of angry with her. I was super angry that she offered no emotional support or condolences whatsoever after Jeralt died. I was angry that she never once showed anger toward Monica/Kronya for her actions. I’m still angry that after all is said and done and I’ve chosen to defend her anyway she still hasn’t apologized for the part she played in Jeralt’s death (guilty by association, maybe, but still), because I just feel like that’s really fucking rude and not how a supportive partner should act.

But I suppose I should back up a bit.

As is obvious by both this post and other posts I’ve made, I’ve really been enjoying Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I’m pretty much addicted to it. It’s world’s better than Fates (which isn’t hard to do, but still), and to be honest I think it’s better than Awakening, too, though I haven’t beaten it and so I suppose I should reserve judgment until then. But on top of the fact that it feels like it’ll have far more replayability than Awakening (since I imagine the story will change pretty dramatically depending on which House you choose, not to mention which branches you take within the House paths, provided Blue Lions and Golden Deer have splits like Black Eagles do), but more of the characters have central plot relevance than in Awakening, and the story itself has more depth, I feel. In Awakening, at most you’d get a scene or two with recruitable characters before they faded into the background, just units and nothing more. The same was true in Fates. Sure, there were a handful that were important (if that), but usually not more than that. But in Three Houses, the students in your House (at least the ones that were originally there) show up in all the cutscenes before and after major missions. They’re important. And while you can recruit characters from other Houses that feel more like your standard units, you don’t have to, which means you’re given an opportunity to really grow attached to all the characters in your squad outside of what you make up about them in your head. This is further enhanced by the fact that you don’t only get to talk to them in supports anymore. Supports still exist, but you can also talk to them around the school, have tea parties with them, attend activities with them, have them ask you questions, and so on and so forth. You really have a chance to get to know them, which makes them feel so much more like actual characters versus pawns that you use in battle.

So in this respect Three Houses feels deeper than Awakening or Fates, but I think the plot also feels more intricate. There are so many different threads and intrigues going on to think about, and I remember at one point I was practically going crazy theorizing about what was going on (and I still have some questions, like whether or not Edelgard could also wield the Sword of the Creator since she, too, has the Crest of Flames). So far most of my theories and predictions have turned out to be accurate, though to be fair most of them have been pretty obvious if you’re paying attention. But that’s not a criticism, or a bad thing. It’s not obvious in the sense that “this feels like they wrote the story for preschool students,” it’s obvious in a way that, again, if you pay attention, the writing leads to its natural conclusion. Intelligent Systems didn’t set out to bamboozle the audience with something that came out of nowhere. So far everything has led to its logical conclusion, and I really like that, particularly in today’s storytelling climate. So as a brief rundown of predictions I had that were proven right some time after I made them:

Prediction: Rhea is unhinged / malevolent / evil, the Church of Seiros is corrupt Reasoning: Early on in the story, when it’s revealed that Lord Lonato is raising a rebellion against the Church of Seiros, Rhea sends the Black Eagles (or I suppose whatever the player decides Byleth’s House is) to go take him out. When she’s giving the mission to Byleth, she says something to the effect of, “This will be a good way to show your students what happens to those who decide to raise their blades against the church.” This is a HUGE, MASSIVE, ALARMING RED FLAG, because it demonstrated that Rhea would never, under any circumstances, even consider giving a fair trial to those who seemed to be in opposition to the church, and since the Church of Seiros holds so much power and say over all three political powers in play (and sort of over Brigid, since the Empire has Petra), that’s a huge problem. Rhea continued with this trend, stating again that she hoped the students learned their lesson once the mission was over, and similarly saying that heretics couldn’t be allowed to live when that incident with Sylvain’s brother happened. So when she revealed her true colors in the tomb and wanted Edelgard killed without even thinking to ask Edelgard why she was doing what she was doing, I wasn’t surprised at all. (Plus there’s all that business with her having something to do with Byleth’s birth and lack of a beating heart, and so on. Aside from turning into a giant beast, Rhea is just bad news.)

Prediction: Flayn is Seteth’s daughter, not his sister. Reasoning: When Flayn goes missing, Rhea stumbles over calling Flayn Seteth’s sister. Her line is something like, “We will find your . . . sister.” If Flayn was actually Seteth’s sister, she wouldn’t have hesitated, almost as if about to slip up. Flayn was too young to be his girlfriend (and it’d be weird they’d be claiming to be family anyway, if that were the case), so it became pretty obvious pretty quickly that she was actually his daughter.

Prediction: Sothis was actually the goddess the entire time. Reasoning: The crown that Sothis wears is the exact same one that Rhea, who is the archbishop of the Church of Seiros, wears. Sothis’ hair and eyes are green, which is something only the upper tiers of the Church of Seiros have in common. And lastly, everyone mysteriously avoided ever saying the goddess’ name, which they’d have no reason at all to do if it wasn’t relevant to a particular character. Therefore, when Rhea revealed that the goddess was named Sothis, it was not a surprise at all.

Prediction: Jeralt was going to die. Reasoning: Come on . . . when does the cool dad ever get to survive until the end of the story? That aside, the second he told Byleth that he had ~something important to tell her~ and that “if I die, search every inch of this room,” I knew he was going to kick the bucket. I’m way too genre savvy for that. It was still really sad, though. Sadder than Emmeryn’s death in Awakening, imo, although it didn’t feel as powerful as hers since there was no emotional battle that followed it (and we didn’t get a track for him that was nearly as emotional and beautiful as “Don’t Speak Her Name”). Also, side note, when I first started playing I was calling Rhea “Green Emmeryn,” and continued right up until she gave her “show your students what happens to those who oppose the church” line. At that point I was like, WELP, Emmeryn never would have pulled this nonsense, never mind.

Prediction: “Monica” was evil. Reasoning: A student who was kidnapped a year ago just so happens to be perfectly fine a year later? And she isn’t a playable unit? And she’s always talking secretively to Edelgard, who she’s on personal terms with for some reason without Hubert kicking up a fuss, despite having only just surfaced? Mmhm, okay. Especially since I was already starting to get suspicious of Edelgard by that point, I guessed “Monica’s” true intentions pretty quickly.

Prediction: Edelgard was the Flame Emperor. Reasoning: This one took me a little while, to be fair, but what first tipped me off about it is that when I told Edelgard that the Flame Emperor had wanted Byleth to join them, Edelgard wasn’t bothered at all by this fact. Rather than expressing relief that Byleth had said no, Edelgard instead went on about how it must be hard to trust someone who wears a mask, but that perhaps one day the Flame Emperor would reveal their true identity and Byleth would change her mind then. That made me start thinking about how Edelgard was always conveniently never around when the Flame Emperor showed up, as well as how Hubert was the one to cause a distraction that allowed the Flame Emperor to escape after the proposition. Then there was the fact that Edelgard grew upset if you said that you thought that the Flame Emperor had the same goals as Solon and the rest (EVEN THOUGH SHE ADMITS THAT’S THE LOGICAL CONCLUSION), and that she was so cozy with Monica, not sympathetic about Jeralt’s death (at least in a way that mattered), and so on and so forth. So when the time came for her announcement, unlike the rest of my students, I wasn’t shocked. I been knew. I was just mad.

That said, I do still have a couple predictions that I haven’t received answers on:

Prediction: Flayn is Saint Cethleann, and Seteth is Saint Cichol, and thus they’re both actually super, super old. Reasoning: To be honest I’m pretty positive on this one, but since it hasn’t been confirmed I can’t put it in the confirmed category yet. If you read the statue descriptions for these saints in the chapel, they sound very, very much like Flayn and Seteth, right down to being father and daughter. Flayn has Saint Cethleann’s Crest, her blood was needed for what Solon was doing, they both have a special connection to Rhea and a deep loyalty to the church, Flayn has a very archaic way of speaking, refuses to divulge her age, gets cagey whenever Cethleann is brought up, and insists that she’s older than she looks. It’s far more obvious with Flayn than it is with Seteth, but I think it’s all pretty clear. They’re the Saints, and given what Rhea’s true identity is, they might not even be human.

Prediction: Byleth is Rhea’s niece (or nephew if you’re playing as the boy Byleth---Boyleth). Reasoning: This one I’m shakier on, because I think my original prediction (that Byleth was a reincarnation of Seiros, or maybe Nemesis, but probably Serios) has been debunked by now. But every time Rhea starts to talk about Byleth’s mother’s relation to her, or Byleth’s relation to her, she’s interrupted. “Your mother was my . . .” is pretty suspicious. The fact that, after fusing with Sothis, Byleth’s hair and eyes turned green is suspicious. (But in that case, why were they blue in the first place? Jeralt’s hair and eyes certainly weren’t blue. Ah well, anime genetics.) Of course, there’s Rhea’s whole speech about how Byleth was “just another failure” and how she was going to tear out Byleth’s heart after Byleth sided with Edelgard (if the player chose that), buuuuuut I’m still going with the theory that Byleth’s mother was Rhea’s sister for the time being.

In any case, as you can see there’s a lot going on, and I think still so much more plot to go, since I haven’t even hit the timeskip yet. I’m really excited to see where the plot goes, but I think that I should explain my reasoning for why I chose to side with Edelgard first, particularly given that my feelings on the whole issue are actually rather complicated, and much more so than the game would make it seem. (Though make no mistake, I have a duplicate save file created so that when I want to play the other path I don’t have to play through all of Black Eagles up to that point again. I was smart about it lol. Also I did look up a tiny spoiler for the split and, upon learning Flayn would leave, hastily shoved as many gifts at Mercedes as possible to recruit her so that I can still have two healers lmao. GOTTA PLAN AHEAD. That said, I recruited Mercedes, my sweet sunshine son Ashe, and Sylvain all in the last month, and they were all Blue Lions, so djkslfdsfsd sorry for poaching three members of your House, Dimitri. But it had to be done, because I needed a healer, I REFUSE to let Ashe die, and Sylvain was free because I’m a woman and he reminds me of Zelos so why not. But still, sorry Dimitri, lmao.)

ANYWAY, to get back on topic . . . I was honestly pretty torn right up until the second choice came. The first choice, where Edelgard asks you to accompany her to the Empire and the game tells you that a drastic change will take place depending on your choice---that was the reason I saw that tiny spoiler about Flayn leaving, because I looked up why choosing to go on a small journey with Edelgard was so goddamn important. But even though I chose to go with her to keep the option open (because if you don’t choose to go with her then, you’re locked into siding with the church), I was still somewhat torn. I was still pretty upset that she offered no words of comfort or understanding after Jeralt’s death, that she never once apologized for trusting Monica so implicitly and always going off with her. Even if she didn’t want to reveal she knew the truth, she could have lied about that and apologized for not seeing the truth sooner. Even a sweet lie would have been better than the zero amount of warmth I received in my time of grief. Aside from that, because Edelgard was the Flame Emperor and was friends with Monica, she indirectly played a part in Jeralt’s death. All the other things that came about as a result of those machinations---Lonato’s death and how that affected Ashe, what happened to Sylvain’s brother, et cetera---that I could get past if I thought it was for a good cause, but such a personal betrayal by one I held such feelings for? I was still so very, very upset. (Also, Solon almost locked Byleth in a void forever, which led to Sothis kind of sacrificing herself, and since Sothis DID offer compassion to Byleth when Edelgard didn’t . . . hhhhh, that also made me feel frosty toward Edelgard.)

But then the moment came. The instant that the Imperial army stormed in and Edelgard ordered them to take the Crest stones (and also said to kill anyone who opposed her, like? You’re really okay with killing all of us, Edelgard? REALLY?), Rhea’s switch flipped and she started barking orders and essentially calling for Edelgard’s head on a stick. And then the battle ended, and she DID call for Edelgard’s head on the end of Byleth’s sword, talking about how she would never stand for the Empire to oppose the chuch, and so on. And in the end, that was what made me make my choice.

Because the truth is, no matter how angry I was with Edelgard, obviously I still care for her. In-game, we spent eleven months together. Yes, the past couple were a bit tense and strained, but that doesn’t change the fact that I spent eleven months---nearly a full year!---bonding with Edelgard, fighting alongside her, finding companionship with her. Byleth’s actual heart might not beat, but unlike SOME people, she still has a metaphorical one that does (or at least, I do, lmao). Maybe Edelgard didn’t have compassion for me, but that doesn’t mean I have none for her. It doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want to hear an explanation, from her, for why she did all these things. It also doesn’t mean that it would be easy for me to just cut down someone who I grew so close to and cared so much about, simply because I was given an order. Like, honestly, what the fuck. Who could do that? How could Rhea ever expect me to do that?

But even setting that aside, I was opposed to Rhea’s methods from day one. I’m a big fan of due process. In Rhea’s world, anyone who opposes her should be cut down. (Apparently Edelgard also feels this way, even toward her own friends, but I feel like I can probably more easily reason with her than Rhea, and in any case, the remaining Black Eagles slaughtered her army, so whatever.) She didn’t give Edelgard a chance to explain, she wasn’t calling for an arrest, there wouldn’t be a trial. She just wanted Edelgard murdered, on the spot. And I can’t stand for that. I’m don’t really like organized religion anyway, but I’m definitely not going to stand for one that ruthlessly murders any who even breathe a word of opposition to it while also holding the most political power in the world. All the Church of Seiros is is religious fascism. That’s it. Her facade of being caring and compassionate is just that---a facade. She turned on Byleth immediately when I had Byleth side with Edelgard, saying that Byleth was “just another failure” (which raises even more questions all its own) and so on and so forth. She’s a tyrant, and I’m not going to follow the orders of a tyrant and kill someone without giving them a chance to defend themselves, and this goes doubly if they’re someone I care about.

That said, I do wish there was an option to give some more nuance, because if I had my way I would have made it clear that while I was going to oppose the church, that doesn’t mean I’m siding with Edelgard, either. Rather, I just want to hear what Edelgard has to say for herself, and all that she’s done. But of course that’s not an option, and anyway at this point she’s won me over again and I’m once again considering marrying her (and if not her then I’m marrying Dorothea, but we’ll see), though I still wish she’d apologize for Jeralt’s death and her callous behavior from before. I wish we’d get an on-screen explanation.

In any event, right now I’m at the part before we storm the monastary to take it down (and therefore right at the end of part one, I think). Obviously, I don’t regret my choice at all given that Edelgard has won me over again, and to be honest I’m not entirely surprised she has given that in many ways she reminds me of Lotor (before he had his character assassinated, ofc). It’s very cool to have a female character like her. I only hope her character continues to be done justice through to the end.

(And if the rumors are true and her S-Rank is No Homo’d I’m going to burn everything to the ground istfg.)

TL;DR: I’m still kind of mad at Edelgard, but I can let it go for now, especially since my ire with Edelgard in no way means I’m going to side with that unhinged monster running that wretched church, dear god.

#fire emblem: three houses #also the fact that shamir - who i also recruited btw - isn't a wlw is a goddamn crime #a fucking crime #why can't i make her my wife #it's an injustice only dwarfed by the injustice that is there are dozens of dogs and cats all over the place in this game #and we can pet *none* of them #what the *actual fuck* is #why would you do this #biggest game design flaw 0 stars #anyway #fire emblem spoilers #fire emblem three houses spoilers #fire emblem: three houses spoilers #fe3h spoilers #fe15 spoilers

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fyrapartnersearch · 7 years

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On the Search Again!

Hello! My name is Shanna. I’m a Taurus who loves long relaxing walks on the beach, stuffing my face with junk food and of course losing myself in the occasional roleplay. A little bit about me before I continue. I’m currently in the pacific time zone but I’m available most hours of the day. The only iffy time is the mornings, depending on working or my sleep XD Speaking of availability; I don’t expect anyone to be as available as I am. I know people have a hectic schedule and that’s totally okay! I get it but I am looking for a long term partner. Someone who won’t go ghost on me because I’ve had some partners do that in the past and that is not a good feeling. So please, please be open to communicate if anything happens. Another disclaimer; be over 18 because I like exploring adult situations and I feel comfortable with anyone over the age of 18. Now on to the good stuff! What am I looking for specifically? A good plot with romance, angst, drama and maybe a happy ending? I want a plot that we can both gush about and plan. I want a plot that grabs both of our attention with dynamic characters! I know I know, I’m overdramatic but I love plots where we can just immerse ourselves in X3 Pairings. At this point, I’m open to any pairs whether it be m// f// or mxf. I want to explore and be able to be flexible to a degree. Though, I don’t have much experience in m// but if you’re willing to be patient, I can always true. I will add this, I’m used to playing the female but over time, I’m slowly growing comfortable playing the male so that is a place. I also double if that is something you’re in :) I mostly do non fandom just because it’s easier but there are fandoms that I would love to do. Most oc X canon but I could be persuaded other wise :D Plots Old time love: An old time love story between a solider and nurse. After being hurt during war, a solider is taken to the hospital where he befriends and soon falls in love with a nurse but has to soon return to war. The two steadily keep in contact through letters but something happens that causes them to stop. When the solider comes home, he finds the nurse but she has moved on. However, she still loves the solider and the two reconnect Helping Hand: Two people helping each other through their own personal crisis (drugs, abusive relationship, unwanted pregnancy) and slowly start falling for each other through their struggles. Criminal: A civilian being caught between a police chase with a robber and for some reason, the civilian is forced to go with/help the robber and the two start getting close. The civilian either tells the robber they must do the right thing or helps the robber escape. Supernatural: Anything involving werewolves, vampires, mermaids, fairies, sirens…just yas. :D Fairytales: Rewriting fairytales. Children of fairytales. Intertwining fairytales…Yaaaasss :D Fandoms Danganronpa Love Live Hetalia Diabolik Lover Servamp Sailor Moon Osomatsu-San Yuri on Ice Black Butler Kill la Kill I Don’t Have Any Friends (Yozora X Sena, one of the rare moments I do canon couple XD) Host Club Ever After High Monster High Disney’s Descendent Skins Homestuck Fire Emblem Fates Life is Strange (canon couples involving Max) Undertale RWBY I’m pretty sure there’s more but I can’t think of any right now. It’ll come back to me XD Smut Yes, I do smut! But I feel like I should go over some ground rules. I have limits and those are non-negotiable. I don’t do pedophilia, Toilet play, blood play, rape or gore. Everything else is fair game BUT I don’t do porn without a plot AND just because I love a good hot steamy romance in roleplay doesn’t mean I’m like that in real life. Please don’t ask me do anything inappropriate because I will kindly tell you to leave. If we’re on a level where we can goof around like that fine but please know when enough is enough. But yes, I do everything else. From age play to incest though like I said, I want to be able to focus on the plot as well as the smut :) Finally, I would like to say, let’s all have fun. Create our own stories. Share ideas because we don’t just have to do mine, I want to hear yours too! And I’m always down for OCC chatter. I feel like that helps the RP run smoothly and it helps us establish a friendship maybe? Hopefully XD If you’re interested… Email [email protected] Kik shannasplayground92 Skype Seras Nemesis (though please be patient if you contact my skype. I don’t go on there as often as my email or kik XD) Hope to hear from you soon! :D

#indie rp #indie roleplay #oc rp #multiple paragraph #long term #smut rp #submission

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8bitsupervillain · 5 years

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End of the Year 2018 (I’m a few days late)

Hello ladies and gentlemen, it's that lovely time of the year again. The holiday season is past, the year is winding down and there's a new year on the horizon. As is traditional at this time of year I feel the need to force upon you my thoughts and feelings about the best things and the worst things I personally have endured this year. Once again, I can't really bring myself to do a best film of the year because honestly I don't recall seeing a movie that really stood out as particularly good this year. Some films I only saw because it was something to get me out of the house for a few hours, and honestly the only movies I can really remember seeing in the theaters were: Solo A Star Wars Story, Slender-Man, and Avengers Infinity War.

Anyway, my Games of the Year 2018 edition. I decided to do something a bit different with this particular list, even though I played quite a number of games this year I didn't really play many that come out this, just a lot of older stuff. You may notice some glaring omissions from the games I did play this year, some of the big titles that came out I simply didn't play. So, you fine people are going to get a double list this year. I will have a top five for games that came out pre-2018 that I played this year, and one for games that did come out this year.

Honorable mentions:

HM: Call of Duty Black Ops IIII. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this game. I haven't really played many shooters in the past couple of years, but I greatly enjoyed my time with Black Ops 4. The base multiplayer plays pretty decently these days, and it reminds me a lot of Counter-Strike for reasons I can't really explain. Like so many of my friends though I really liked the time I spent in Blackout, I don't really play these battle royale games, but I enjoyed the time I put into this one.

HM: Mega Man 11. This was a very fun game, and I liked it quite a lot. Some of the pixel perfect jumps the game requires of you are a fair bit irritating though. I freely admit, I may have liked this a lot more than I may have otherwise because of the fact that I played Mighty No. 9 a couple months before the games release.

HM: Elder Scrolls Legends. I played this game a lot over the year, and I'd probably still be playing it if they didn't make the game unplayable on mobile and completely uninteresting to play on PC.

HM: SoulCalibur VI. I was really looking forward to this game, and I was so happy that the game came out as good as it did. It's a delight to play, and I really want to get back into playing more of it. Geralt was an interesting addition to the game that I'm really glad made it, he's quite fun to play as, and I can't wait to try out 2B.

HM: Deltarune. I'll admit that when I started playing this I wasn't really feeling it, I thought that the game was going to be trying too hard to recapture what made Undertale good. But it's a surprisingly enjoyable game, can't wait for the rest of it to come out eventually.

HM: Faith. A retro-style horror game, done in vector graphics. I like this game, granted some aspects of the boss fight, and the events just prior to this fight are somewhat annoying.

HM: King's Field (and King's Field 2). I played these in about mid-January, shortly after playing Persona 5. It was a nice little palette cleanser because it was a change going from a big story RPG to a game with a barebones plot. I played the Sword of Moonlight version of King's Field, and I had fun with it. King's Field 2 was also fun, I could not play these games without a guide though.

Game of the Year: Pre-2018

5. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

I played the 3DS version of this game, and honestly I loved just about every minute of it. The storyline was actually very well done, and I liked basically every character in this game. I was a bit unsure of how the game would play on the 3DS but it ran really well, and actually holds up great in the visuals. This is going to sound silly but I really like it when games include outfits that actually change the look of your character, it's a real treat. I really wish I had actually played this one when I got a PS2 copy years ago, but at least I finally got the chance to play this one.

4. Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight

I'm very slowly going through my backlog of 3DS/DS games that I've built up over the past five years or so. I played through this game back in March, and honestly I keep having a desire to go back through the game again just for the fun of it. The game becomes a bit of a bastard to go through towards the end, but I found it to be a greatly rewarding experience to play through. Also unlike Untold 1, the story mode in this game isn't a complete mess! So that's nice, a shame there will probably never be an Untold 3.

3. Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild

Briefly alluded to as "a game I'd probably really like if I played more than an hour" on last year's list I found that to be the case entirely. Breath of the Wild was a really great game that I found myself loving from top to bottom. This is another game that I completed fairly early in the year that I find myself wanting to replay again because I enjoyed it that much. Even when I played other games that are entirely different from it I found myself trying to pull off some of the moves and abilities you get in Breath of the Wild. Maybe I wouldn't have found this game to be so great had I played any of the newer Zelda titles (the last one I played was Wind Waker), but I found this game to be an absolute joy to play. I admit that the announcement of it being an open-world game filled me with dread, but I was so pleased to find out my fears were entirely unfounded. It's just really remarkable how much stuff they were able to put in this game, I wonder how the Wii U version fairs in comparison?

2. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt (and the DLC)

This is quite possibly the best version of Dragon Quest V I have ever played! I don't really know why it took me so long to get to this game, but for whatever it's worth the slightly over one hundred hours I've sunk into the game was a trip entirely worth taking. A bad habit I have when playing RPGs is sometimes near the end I start wishing it would wrap up, I never had this thought while playing through the Witcher's length. Even when I played the DLC almost immediately upon completing the primary story I didn't want my time in this world to end. This was an unexpected treat, after having played the first two Witchers I didn't in my wildest dreams think the third one would be this good. I absolutely adore this game, it has some of the best writing I've seen in an RPG, the characters are great, and I really like the villains. They feel like a very real, tangible threat as opposed to a vague evil sitting just beyond the horizon. Add to that the inclusion of Gwent and you have a game that holds its value really well. It must be said that Blood and Wine has what might be one of the most affecting endings I have ever seen in ages.

1. Fire Emblem Warriors

Surely I'm out of my mind, you must be thinking. After the words I said about Breath of the Wild, and Witcher III, how could a Musou game be the best of the pre-2018 games I played this year? Particularly in a year where Hyrule Warriors got a re-release? It's simple, I didn't really play Hyrule Warriors, and I played through Fire Emblem Warriors three times. While Breath of the Wild, and Witcher III have story, waifus, and better looks and feel about them, Fire Emblem Warriors has gameplay working in its favor. The gameplay in Fire Emblem Warriors is quite possibly some of the best Musou gameplay I've seen in a long while. Sure I might have issues with the fact that this is primarily an Awakening/Fates show I'm able to get over it because of how good the game plays. I earnestly hope for a sequel, I know it's a long-shot that any of the older Fire Emblem heroes would get in, but I would love it. Also this game does the impossible and makes the cast and story beats of Fates tolerable and decent.

Games of the Year 2018

5. Detroit: Become Human

This game should count itself lucky I didn't play anything slightly more substantive. If I had played anything better than this I don't honestly think Detroit would have gotten any more than an honorable mention. That's not to say I didn't like the game, I enjoyed it greatly in fact, I just am surprised this game managed to be one of the better games I've played this year. The story really isn't the greatest around, but it did have moments that I liked a whole lot. Like so many others I think I liked the stuff with Connor and Hank the best. If this game had focused more on the "android cop" idea I might have liked it more, but I do want to reiterate I do think this was a good game. As by the numbers as Markus's story may have been, and some really hamfisted story beats that occur toward the end of the game it was a really solid game overall. I kind of feel like the game also played its hand regarding some of the characters a bit too early, and as such it kind of fumbled the reveal when it happens. It is pretty interesting seeing some of the variations between being peaceful Markus versus violent Markus, also the endgame variations of Connor's arc are pretty intriguing. Sadly Kara kind of gets the short end of the stick when it comes to characterization. Despite the game not quite sticking the landing when it approaches the ending it was still a good game to play through.

4. The Banner Saga Trilogy

This might be a bit of a cheat, but the console versions of the trilogy came out this year, so I'm counting it. It might not have the deepest strategy gameplay around, but this series is so much more than just the combat encounters. Some of the choices you're forced to make as the series advances are actually pretty difficult to deal with, but for its credit the game never really goes out of its way to chastise you for the decisions. I enjoyed the setting of these games a lot, Viking stuff is very interesting to me, and I absolutely adore the art style these games use. It reminded me a whole lot of the animated Hobbit movie that was out in the early 80s that I remember my dad having. I adore pretty much the whole cast that is in this trilogy, some of the characters fall flat, but when the cast is as large as the one in this series it's to be expected. This series also reminded me a lot of the early Fire Emblem games (specifically the ones on the GBA), in that your characters can permanently die as the story progresses. I played through this entire series over the course of a month because I was that engrossed in the world and story this series takes place in. I like how the threat in the series becomes much larger and grander as the games go on, and it never really feels entirely out of left field. The story does take a bit of a dive towards the end of the third game, but it was never really a deal breaker for me. If you like turn-based tactical combat, vaguely Norse mythology, or just a compelling story I really can't recommend this enough.

3. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

Perhaps they should have done the Kiwami games prior to making this, since they seem to have had some issues with the engine. That said however I really enjoyed this one a whole lot. I don't really have a lot to say about the gameplay for this game, it is still some of the best combat you can experience in most modern games these days. Style switching from 0 is gone, but that's alright. Most heat moves seem to boil down to mashing the button a whole lot to make the impact greater, but none of the gameplay changes were a deal breaker for me. I don't really want to talk about the story in the game because I feel that the story is really the game's greatest aspect. The story has some major gut punch moments, it still has its more outlandish moments (it is Yakuza after all), but the story overall is a very satisfying very moving finale for Kiryu's story. I desperately want more people to play these games because the ending was perhaps one of the most emotionally satisfying things I have ever experienced with a video game.

2. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of An Elusive Age

I adore this game. When it came out in September I played nothing but Dragon Quest XI until I completed the game. It's rare these days that something I look forward to actually lives up to my expectations, but Dragon Quest XI hit the mark and then some. I love just about every single member of the party in this game, I don't think there's a single weak link to be found in the cast. Sure the villain of the game lacks a bit of oomph despite the build-up, but I was still really digging the final villain by the time the game was approaching its end. Normally when I play an RPG by the end I start to drift away from it a bit, but I was thoroughly enjoying my time with it. I do have some complaints with the narrative towards the end, some minor complaints I have with certain characters and their characterizations near the end. The game is absolutely worth playing, it is just sheer classic role playing joy from beginning to end. Plus if you play it on PC you can mod in the orchestral soundtrack which is nice.

1. Monster Hunter: World

I sunk a lot of time into this game over the year. Two hundred and twenty-five hours to be precise (on one character at least). Granted that might be small potatoes compared to the time others have sunk into this I think that is quite a large amount. There's just something about this game that keeps calling me back to it. It might not be the most narratively rich game, but quite frankly I love this game to pieces. It's very cathartic hunting down these big behemoths. To be honest though I was kind of split between declaring this or Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate my favorite of the year. They both do something that I love so much about these games. It might be shallow to say but I probably like World more due to the graphical polish that the game possesses over Generations Ultimate. I love the inclusion of the cosmetic add-ons that are in World, it amuses me greatly to run around dressed up like Ryu from Street Fighter, or Dante from Devil May Cry, I also like the Aloy costume from Horizon: Zero Dawn. However I kind of prefer the greater amount of monsters that are available in Generations Ultimate. The sheer volume of monsters in the game is kind of ridiculous, but some of them are just tremendously fun to fight and I wish they could be in World. Generations Ultimate I kind of feel like I might be cheating by including it here, since it was an import copy for the Switch I played a lot. Honestly though, Monster Hunter World and Generations Ultimate I spent an absurd amount of time with during the year. In World's case at least I imagine I'll play a lot more during this year simply because of the inclusion of multiple crossover events that will no doubt be happening over the year. There's also the fact that Iceborne is coming out later this year, and I really can't wait to get my hands on that.

The honest truth is every single game that make up my best of list are all games that I really want to replay because I enjoyed them so much. Also just for fun here's the order the list would go in if I combined the two lists:

10. Detroit Become Human 09. Dragon Quest VIII 08. Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold 07. The Banner Saga Trilogy 06. Yakuza 6 05. Breath of the Wild 04. The Witcher 3 03. Dragon Quest XI 02. Fire Emblem Warriors 01. Monster Hunter World/Generations Ultimate

Here’s to 2019, and the very many games that are coming out that I am really looking forward to! Thank you for reading, and until next time farewell.

#Game of the Year #2018

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